amplodor

[pluralquotebook]

🐺: SHAKES BEE

🐺: WOULD YOU BE A STONER !@!!!!!

🐝: :OMEGADANCEBUTFAST: !!

🐝: :BluntDog: (but it failed in proxy)

🐝: D:

🐺: I CAN FIX THAT

🐺: gimme a bit

🐝: :bluntdog: (it worked)

🐝: !!!!!!! :YIPPEE:

🐺: YEAHHHHH STONER BEEEEEE

🐝: :LaughtPepe: (failed in proxy)

🐝: >:(!!!!

— The Hounds' Realm

(🐺 was baked) (also this was on discord so... Emojis aren't shown here 💔)

.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Dormarth - Day 105

Race: Beast

Alignment: Dark-Neutral

September 6th, 2024

Many mythological dogs fall into a set of strangely similar tropes, even beyond just the idea of them having multiple heads, as observed in the Orthrus analysis. One that I find particularly interesting, though, has to be in their common connections to death. Likely stemming from how dogs were, and still are, seen as intrinsically connected to hunting, many dogs in mythology are connected to death, the spiritual realm, and many such things. We've already seen this with the Inugami analysis earlier this week, but another curious example, and a personal favorite of mine, has to be in the Celtic Wild Hunt's goodest boy, Dormarth.

While the Wild Hunt is a demon itself in SMT, its intrinsic connection to death and the afterlife makes it a very curious topic in connection to Dormarth, also known as Dormarch, a hunting hound that joins in during said hunt. Originating in Wales, Dormarth is a beast that accompanies the riders during the Welsh version of the Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt itself is a common motif throughout many different European mythologies and cultures, with many cultures offering their own spins on the general concept. This, naturally, leads to differing figures throughout the recurring motif, and the Welsh version has its own fair share of unique ideas, with one of them being the collection of souls of warriors to join in on the hunt, and who else does that collection than Dormarth?

The games' recollections of Dormarth are somewhat inaccurate, from what I can tell- for the most part, they paint the dog as being a guardian of the Celtic version of hell, but most actual historical references of Dormarth seem to split that between many other concepts regarding death and the afterlife. In fact, we don't really know much about Dormarth, given that the dog only appears in one passage throughout old Welsh literature, being in The Black Book of Carmarthen. The name Dormarth is also rather controversial, as the original text is somewhat fragmented, missing a letter in the name that could be either Dormarch or Dormarth, both of which carrying wholly different meanings. To quote the only reference we actually have of Dormarth,

My hound is sleek and fair, The best of hounds; Dormach he is, who was with Maelgwn. Dormach rednose – why stare you so? Because I cannot comprehend Your wanderings in the firmament.

A lot of controversy has surrounded Dormarth for years, but that's beside the point. Dormarth, as a name, seems to roughly translate to mean an 'embodiment of death,' giving light to the idea of Dormarth being just that. Combine that with Dormarth's connection to the dead due to being in the Wild Hunt, a hunt made up entirely of spirits, and one can easily draw a connection between it and Cerberus or other such guard dogs of the underworld. On top of this, though, its connection to death may also be it guiding lost souls to the underworld, or even collecting dead warriors to join in on the Wild Hunt. Language is fun like that, no?

Given that its natural habitat is described as being 'among the clouds,' being associated with the Wild Hunt, it's commonly believed that Dormarth accompanies the Wild Hunt, and observations in the Black Book of Carmarthen by one John Gwenogvryn Evans in 1906 seem to also give a physical description of the hound as being a two-legged dog with swirling fish tails behind it. Its overall role is rather unclear, as I've gone over in extensive detail, but Dormarth does seem to play a rather interesting role in the Wild Hunt overall, whether it be a guardian of the gates of Annwn (the Welsh underworld) or a hunting dog that accompanies the Wild Hunt, to even one that collects new hunters for it. With all of that, though, how's it portrayed in SMT?

I love Dormarth's design, but given everything related to the dog, it's really hard to see where a lot of the elements came from. Like, come on, where's the fish tail? Where are the only two front legs? Why is she bipedal, and why is she a girl? As strange as it is for a Dormarth design, though, I do like how it looks. She is incredibly gender, and I like the spike collar- it plays well into the whole themes of death- and helmet, which ties her (though vaguely) to the Wild Hunt. Overall, a pretty good design, though not one I quite understand for the hound of the hunt.

[albaitross]

( alright, time for the belated persona/smt post that breakdowns more specific details of that verse per game ww !! )

.

General/All Games

Being partly inhuman (having a lineage with demons/angels/Shadows/Persona/etc.), she is capable of entering areas that are inaccessible to a typical human and/or is immune to most paranormal phenomena. E.g. the Dark Hour and Mementos.

Similarly, her inhuman nature allows her to communicate with demons/Shadows in a normal fashion. This further leads to a fair chance that she will not be attacked on sight by them and thus avoid any confrontations. That said, certain factors will affect this: Most enemies will simply be confused over her existence, sensing both the human and inhuman sides of her; depending on their own personalities, an enemy may err on the side of caution or may disregard and attack her anyway. Opponents that will usually avoid a fight with her include: weak, bottom-tier enemies, enemies known for their intelligence or wisdom, and Neutral-aligned enemies. Opponents that will 100% attack her on sight with no recourse: Law-aligned enemies. For Chaos-aligned enemies, they have a tendency to try and convert her to their causes. May will always rebuff them, and depending on their personalities, they may let the matter go or become enraged at her refusal.

She is also able to see the entrance to the Velvet Room and while said room is operating as per usual, she may enter that liminal space. But as she is not a guest, she will not have access to any of their specific services, and is treated more of a passing visitor who may strike up conversation with the residents while they're not busy.

She avoids the Expanse as much as she can. Not because she particularly hates the place, but more because there's too many demons who may notice her connections to the Law and Chaos sides and thus bother her about them in some fashion. Sure, she could just explode them all out of her way, but that's tedious. For that reason, as well as out of pure personal preference from her human side - she stays in realms and worlds where humanity is more prevalent, or at least where some form of human civilization is present. Not that it doesn't have its own cons of course—humans are often so ignorant—but at least most humans will first knock before breaking down her door.

Because of her messy connections to the sides of Law and Chaos however, she has an unfortunate need to be constantly on the move in order to keep ahead of their notice or subsequent hounding. As a result, she is often moving from place to place, job to job, and generally trying to stay out of supernatural trouble (though keeps poking her nose into it out of curiosity anyway).

Persona 2 - IS + EP

A journalist employed under the magazine Coolest, though she primarily deals with the smaller lifestyle columns and horoscope section as she, para-quote, "hates working and likes being lazy."

She is also a Rumormonger, but due to her half-demon/angel background, is very aware of how rumors have been turning into truth for the past several years already. As such, while she will collect rumors, she behaves differently from other Rumormongers in that she requires a hefty price for sharing any - said price is not money, but something so absurd that it's usually not possible to meet her demand anyway. (Unless you spread a rumor that her whack request is attainable somewhere like, who knows, maybe that Ame-no-Kagutsuchi sword is actually real and you just need to defeat some underwear-wearing ninja at the top floor of the Abandoned Factory or god fucking knows.) Alternatively, and more commonly, she may ask for a rumor to be suppressed as a price for spreading one.

While she is unaware of the specifics, she has personally observed that some nonsense is happening between "higher powers" (i.e. Philemon and Nyarlathotep) and because nothing good ever comes out of this sorta bullshit, she is keeping her head down and simply watching how things proceed without trying to meddle too much. Or trying to anyway - it's kinda hard to avoid a bunch of maniac cultists and demons all over the damn city.

Her inhuman background also makes her immune to the splitting of the timelines following the end of IS. In effect, this allows her to reside on This Side with all of her memories of what happened on the Other Side, in addition to being able to freely traverse between the two sides.

Her Persona of choice that she defaults to during this time is Lucifer.

Persona 3

An editor working for a publishing company on Tatsumi Port Island. Despite loathing the workload and tending to nitpick everything in front of her, she highly enjoys reading the books she is given to review and edit. While at this editing job, her favorite book turns out to be a book about a pink alligator that was submitted to her for review before it got published by her employer.

She is aware of the true nature of Apathy Syndrome. Similarly, she is aware that Death is present on the island in several pieces - though how exactly or even why, she doesn't know. She is also aware that should these scattered pieces reunite, Death will call for Nyx, and subsequently, the Fall of humanity.

That said, while intrigued by the sudden changes and events of the game, she has chosen to remain a bystander - watching to see how the chosen representatives of humanity will combat this particular threat.

Post-P3, regardless of whether she personally knew the protagonist, she will be aware in a basic sense about what had transpired at the top of Tartarus - and commend the protagonist for their strength of will to ascend from human to concept and avert the Fall. That said, she will also feel a little pity for them, for their sacrifice would necessitate the abandonment of their human nature.

Her preferred Persona during this time is Lucifer; she is capable of summoning others, but will refrain unless absolutely necessary.

Persona 4

A journalist that gets stationed in Inaba once the serial murders/disappearances start. Her job is to cover said incidents for the local newspaper back in Okina City - though for the most part, she's treating it as a lazy vacation and doing the bare minimum of journalism on her end.

She can tell something is off about the town just from the unusual, supernatural nature of the fog that rolls in every now and then - and there's even a Velvet Room! - but is unaware of the specifics of what divine scheme is going on here.

Accidentally discovers the TV World while trying to clean some dust off a television screen. Yes, accidentally.

While she is capable of entering the other world without any issues (no fatigue, can see through the fog, technically already has a Persona of her own), she can still manifest a Shadow self if she lingers too long there. She will not manifest a corresponding region/dungeon, however.

Her Shadow self focuses on her misanthropic side, being disdainful of humans and their ignorance, as well as their habit for avoiding difficult truths and only embracing facts that are twisted to meet their own desires and expectations. With such a perspective, her Shadow views herself as the only one who can perceive, understand and accept 'truth' itself, and postures herself as the sole guide of humanity - effectively, a tyrant.

Her preferred Persona during this time is Kassandra; she is capable of summoning others, but will refrain unless absolutely necessary.

Persona 5

A journalist working for a gossip magazine called Shibuya Tomorrow, primarily writing for their lifestyle and horoscope sections. That said, much like any other journalist at this time, she's a close follower of the news regarding the Phantom Thieves of Hearts - and in terms of bias, has a very balanced, centralist view on them (that is to say, likes their rebellious nature, but believes a certain detective's stance on their methodology to not be baseless either). Nonetheless, she still leans more in favor to the Thieves.

She is aware of Mementos and the fact that something very, very Law-aligned is down there. As such, for a majority of the game's duration, she steers clear of the place unless she really can't help it for whatever reason.

She doesn't know what happened with the Velvet Room or even what its current, exact state is, but she can similarly sense a certain God of Control's rancid vibes from beyond its glowing door. As such, she also tries to avoid the place, as well as the eyes of the wardens guarding it. (Once the usurper is gone, she will likely try to question its returned residents on what the actual hell happened because since when did Philemon's servants become so weak ass??)

She will still be affected during the 3rd Semester; her delusion is that she's a normal human and ignorant of the supernatural. That said, because of her own nature, she will suffer from a ridiculous level of headaches and a persistent sense of wrongness until she completely shakes off the delusion. If she does break out of it and realises the cause of all this, she will be simultaneously pissed at and pity Maruki. Pissed because forgetting and even twisting the truth of things (and very specifically, herself), however difficult and ugly, is an idea she despises. But she can still understand the idea of simply wanting to make people happy and free from suffering. Nonetheless, doesn't like the idea of having her own happiness "controlled" like this, with zero of her actual input.

During this time, she will default to Kassandra as her Persona, but may utilize Lucifer instead depending on the situation. She is also capable of summoning others beyond these two, but will refrain unless absolutely necessary. She will also not have a cool costume in Mementos, unfortunately. Because she's already a rebellious existence by literal biological and cosmological nature.

[monriatitans]

Ta-Da! List: Wednesday, March 13th

I share my “Ta-Da! List” every day so everyone gets a daily update and I have a reminder of what I’ve accomplished.

To learn more about “Ta-Da! Lists”, check out @adhdjesse's book Extra Focus.

Abbreviations

– O&T: Opinions & Truth Blog – TMA: TitansMonriArt – WGS: The Weekend Game Show – COTM: Cause of the Month – COTMQ: Cause of the Month Quote – WHMQ: Women's History Month Quote – BMAC: Buy Me a Coffee – TDL: Ta-Da! List

Ta-Da! List

✧ throughout the day: – kept emails manageable – loaded the dishwasher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ on the bedroom setup: – TMA: searched for an FFXIV quote by Minfilia about how the Scions are a bridge between realms to finish a poem and couldn’t find it – O&T: shared today's TDL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ on the office setup: – WGS: the 3 scheduled WHMQs posted, and they were manually shared on O&T and other social media – O&T: began preparing COTM and COTMQ announcement posts for later months; added the Causes’ mission statements, or short descriptions, to the COTM Page – NRL: shared “Men Who Hate Women” by Laura Bates to O&T and other social media – Canva: created a “Dwarfism Awareness Month” header image for December – BMAC: added the Causes’ mission statements, or short descriptions, to the COTM Post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ chores and miscellaneous: – listened to The Hound + The Fox‘s songs “Rhiannon” and “Rot Next to You“, via Amazon Music, repeatedly – watched “The Expendables” repeatedly – “watched” Ponderful's video “Autism in Media: The Little Mermaid?” via YouTube – checked the mail – “watched” Sydney Watson's video “Gaming journalists are a disease” via YouTube – “watched” Upper Echelon's video “Is This GamerGate 2? (The Media and Sweet Baby)” via YouTube – “watched” Sydney Watson's video “The children of OnlyFans mothers” via YouTube – “watched” Sydney Watson's video “The age of OnlyFans regret” via YouTube

—

Well, these are all the updates I had for today! Thank you for reading!

May every decision you make be *in the spirit of fairness* and may the rest of your day *NOT go to $#!7*!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy what I do? Please consider supporting via Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC)! Like what you see and want to know when there’s more? Click here to subscribe for updates and/or hit the Follow button! Watch MonriaTitans on Twitch and YouTube! For more about MonriaTitans, click here! The image was made in Canva!

[oh-austin]

a fun lil' elvis tag ! thanks to the lovely @dre6ming who tagged me!

when and what was your first exposure to Elvis Presley? when I was a kid my grandad used to show me all this old music, but he used to sing hound dog to me lots!

And what was your first impression? I honestly just thought that it was funny, my grandad singing it, but I really did love elvis' music once he showed me the actual recordings

Lace shirts or jumpsuits? lace shirts, biiiig whore for those

You can steal one of Elvis/Austin's outfits, what's it going to be? I honestly just want the pink scarf, like hand it over sir

C'mon, we know you've been watching/reading old interviews and random footage of the man, so what's your favorite random Elvis quote? I love the soundbite in the live heartbreak hotel second stand-up show, where he's laughing at himself for missing his cue to come in. "we're gonna have to do it again, I missed it that time. *laughs*, ready when you are [to the band, still laughing]". its very endearing, definitely listen to it!

Did you find Austin Butler's lips distracting despite them being in a movie about the King of plush upper lips? (Be honest now) I always find them distracting actually, bold of you to assume I don't

What's an aspect of Elvis' character you wish more people appreciated? his genuine love for his family

You meet Col. Tom Parker for the first time, forewarned with the knowledge of what a scumbag he is, what do you do?: A. nothing, you're a coward who doesn't care about an abused golden-hearted men B. you give the Colonel a stern telling off C. you encourage Elvis to leave him and break the contract D. you slap a legal document against that fat suit and declare "Mrs. Claus is bringing you a lawsuit" E. you waste no time with formalities, it's a letter opener to the jugular for that piece of trash

E, treat people with kindness xo

What was your favorite aspect/scene from the Elvis 2022 movie? I love the scene where he's been taken away after the 'trouble' performance and he's got his head resting against the headrest of the car, soo good

You can choose only one song or piece of media to convince someone to become an Elvis fan, what is it going to be? burning love, converted my boyfriend with that song- he's constantly jamming to it unapologetically

How many children would you give Elvis Presley from your own -or theoretical- womb? (listen to the beast in ya) three, four at MAX- but I feel like two is ideal with his lifestyle

Where are you hanging out with EP, his bedroom with the teddy bears, Club Handy, his private jet or Graceland? graceland, im a domestic woman- lemme in

What is the peak Elvis era? warning, this says an awful lot about you... 50s......... I love the lace

How long have you been an Austin Butler fan (be honest now, God is watching) aliens in the attic in like 2009 <3 although I liked tom better than jake, sorry austin

What kind of Elvis chick are you? -a 1950's prospective wife material that he's already sampled, a 1960's filmset fling or a Vegas torrid backstage affair? prospective wife, literally would clean up after this man- whore for domestic life

Is Austin Butler an honorary southerner now? Answer options: A. hell no, California can keep his sweet cheeks. B. hell yes, he's practically been possessed by the soul of the King of the South

A- definitely not, that man has california running through his veins

Pick your poison in the fan-fiction realm: angst, fluff, smut, fluffy smut, angsty fluff, angsty smut?...or is reading about Elvis Presley an acknowledged health hazard? fluff, I want it all day every day- my weakness is dad!austin fluff

Spit or swallow for this man? (And if you don't understand this question move right along) I hate bjs with everything in me, so I have to be feeling extra slutty to even CONSIDER THEM........ but I would swallow

Would Gladys approve of you? Take your above answer into consideration I mean.. I hope? but probably not at first, I'd try to win her over though

Which of Elvis' cars is your favorite? look I don't know anything about cars, so sorry. but the one he's driving with priscilla in the little home video scene

What are your odds for besting this man at karate? definitely not, but I would try to give him a run for his money

If you could meet Elvis and have enough composure to tell him something, what would it be? love your music boo, thats it

What’s a hobby or pastime of yours you wish you could share with Elvis/Austin!Elvis? I love the beach, its my favourite place to go any time of the year- so I'd take Austin down to my local and make him jump off the steps of the jetty with me

What’s the Elvis 2022 quote you’ve been mumbling to yourself ever since you heard it? honestly idek, so sorry

What are your top 3 go-to Elvis songs? blue suede shoes, suspicious minds, viva las vegas (its my guilty pleasure song)

If you could spare him one tragedy what would it be? seeing his mumma pass, so so sad- feel like she would've been able to steer him in the right direction if she was still with him

Is there a modern artist that sorta scratches for you the itch that Elvis’ absence leaves? look I love harry, but I don't know if I would say he 'scratched' the itch if that makes sense- but he's definitely a close second

How did you react at the end of the movie when In the Ghetto started to play A. I got up and fixed a snack because I have no soul, B. I left feeling alarmingly horny, C. I was impressed but didn’t realize how affected I was until days later when it was still with me D. I cried buckets they had to bring in a mop E. I may have appeared emotionless but in fact my soul was leaving my body and I don’t think it’s returned quite yet

E again! I literally have no soul when watching films in the cinema, I was also working when I saw it so I couldn't or my client would've been like celeste wtf

If you’ve got a favorite gif or photo insert it here and bless us all

I won’t tag anyone, but anyone who wants to participate can <3

[themauvesoul]

Hope you all invested in cram bc I sure am abt to post! Anyways. I have been thinking. About boyking sammy. And I have many thoughts.

So like. It’s s3. Dean is running out of time. In desperation, sam calls up demon after demon to try and make a deal. And it’s just rejection after rejection. No matter which crossroads demon he calls up. Until he summons crowley.

Now the thing to know about crowley in this au is that he knows a lot more than he should. He knows that azazel and his lot have been maneuvering towards the apocalypse, and he knows they need Sam alive in order to do so. And like. Crowley doesn’t particularly care for the end of the world. Apocalypses are bad for the soul-selling business. So, when Sam summons crowley barely a month before dean’s soul is due, crowley decides to breach dean’s contract and make a deal with Sam anyway.

The deal is this: when dean’s soul is due, sam will take his place. Sam, who is scared and terribly desperate, takes it before crowley even finishes his sentence. And then to quote b autisticandroids, he tries to suck crowley’s tonsils out for a minute and a half. Crowley is. Intrigued. More than a little horny. So after the deal is sealed, he watches Sam wipe his spit from his lips, and says you know. Hell doesn’t have to be, well, hell. Not for you. You were born to rule. I can show you how, if you like. And Sam is like well. If I’m in I might as well go all the way.

So for the next month or so, Sam lies his ass off. He lets dean think that his original deal is still on, and even though he feels terribly guilty about it, he never tells the truth. Dean would just try to stop him. And at night, after dean falls asleep, Sam sneaks off to meet crowley in a different, much nicer hotel room. And crowley teaches him all sorts of things. How to really use his powers. The extent of what he can do. And, of course, he feeds Sam his blood. Soon, Sam can exorcise demons with a flick of his wrist. By the end, Sam can completely extinguish a lesser demon.

And then. They sneak into lilith’s house. Dean hears the hounds baying, and he says his goodbyes. But when the hounds show up, they don’t go for him. They go for Sam. And all Sam says is I’m sorry, dean. I had to.

And so. Sam dies and goes to hell. Once he arrives, he wreaks havoc. He kills his way into the throne room, then kills the demon sitting on it. After, crowley comes to him, still covered in blood and lounging on his new-won throne, and says well. You’ll need an advisor, won’t you. And sam says yeah. And crowley says I could be that for you, if you like. When sam accepts, they seal that deal with a kiss too.

So now it’s like. King Sam and his trusted advisor crowley. Only Sam can’t bring himself to trust crowley, and crowley hasn’t trusted anyone in centuries. But at the same time, they trust each other more than they trust anyone else. What I’m saying is scene where crowley says hell is a pit of backstabbing vipers. Anyone down here is just as likely to betray you for fun as they are to betray you for profit. The currency of the realm, then, is honesty. And sam says so, what. You’re saying I should trust you? And crowley says oh god no. I’d betray you in a heartbeat. But, at the very least, I won’t lie to you when I do it.

But even though they don’t trust each other, it’s still like. They’re all they’ve got. And after years at each other’s sides, they can’t imagine being apart. So maybe they fall together, a little bit. Maybe crowley kisses sam after a particularly clever scheme of theirs pays off. They fall into bed together and they fall in love, but they still sleep with knives under their pillows, and still search the sheets for hex bags the morning after. And they continue like that in perpetuity. The frog and the scorpion; in love, but never quite able to trust one another

[stray-kaz]

Elvis and Austin!Elvis Ask game:

Let’s start off gently shall we? Because this most definitely devolves into thirsty madness later, you’ve been warned…and also, we are all at various stages in the Elvis fandom, some of us have been suckling the gospel of EP from birth, others just had their sexual awakening with the 2022 movie, and then there’s the ones among us with frickin’ doctorates on the man. All are welcome, it keeps us colorful. Feel free to pick and chose which of these you want to answer 

•When and what was your first exposure to Elvis Presley? It would have been singing Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes in primary school.

•And what was your first impression? I honestly didn’t have an impression at, say, eleven years old. They were just songs to me.

•Lace shirts or jumpsuits? Lace shirts.

•You can steal one of Elvis/Austin’s outfits, what’s it going to be? The pink suit.

•C’mon, we know you’ve been watching/reading old interviews and random footage of the man, so what’s your favorite random Elvis quote? Goes something like: “If I ever thought what I did was hurting anybody, I’d pack up, go home and I’d never sing another note.”

•Did you find Austin Butler’s lips distracting despite them being in a movie about the King of plush upper lips? (Be honest now) No, but his hips were.

•What’s an aspect of Elvis’ character you wish more people appreciated? His striving to find and follow God.

•You meet Col. Tom Parker for the first time, forewarned with the knowledge of what a scumbag he is, what do you do?:  A. nothing, you’re a coward who doesn’t care about abused golden-hearted men B. you give the Colonel a stern telling off C. you encourage Elvis to leave him and break the contract E. you slap a legal document against that fat suit and declare “Mrs. Claus is bringing you a lawsuit” F. you waste no time with formalities, it’s a letter opener to the juggler for that piece of trash. C, and maybe D, too.

•What was your favorite aspect/scene from the Elvis 2022 movie? When he strides out in stage at the hayride and when he starts to “wiggle”.

•You can choose only one song or piece of media to convince someone to become an Elvis fan, what is it going to be? The 2022 film or the live performance of If I Can Dream in the ‘68 Comeback Special.

•How many children would you give Elvis Presley from your own -or theoretical- womb? (listen to the beast in ya, your feminism won’t serve you here) If I lived at the same time as him (as I am already married and have kids), I’d give him three.

Where are you hanging out with EP, his bedroom with the teddy bears, Club Handy, his private jet or Graceland? The teddy bears are freaky as heck, so Club Handy or Graceland.

•What is the peak Elvis era? warning, this says an awful lot about you… Boo to you lol, I will always say young Elvis era is my favourite, though I have never heard a voice more perfect than in If I Can Dream.

•How long have you been an Austin Butler fan (be honest now, God is watching) Since June 26th, the year of our Lord, two thousand and twenty two.

•What kind of Elvis chick are you? -a 1950’s prospective wife material that he’s already sampled, a 1960’s filmset fling or a Vegas torrid backstage affair? 1950′s prospective wife.

•Is Austin Butler an honorary southerner now? Answer options: A. hell no, California can keep his sweet cheeks. B. hell yes, he’s practically been possessed by the soul of the King of the South. B.

•Pick your poison in the fan-fiction realm: angst, fluff, smut, fluffy smut, angsty fluff, angsty smut?…or is reading about Elvis Presley an acknowledged health hazard? Anything fluff, maybe with a touch of spice.

•Spit or swallow for this man? (And if you don’t understand this question move right along) Neither. Gross.

•Would Gladys approve of you? Take your above answer into consideration. Oh, she would love me. Raised in church and a real daddy’s girl.

•Which of Elvis’ cars is your favorite? The pink or dark purple Caddy.

•What are your odds for besting this man at karate? Zero. Nil. Nada. None. Zip.

•If you could meet Elvis and have enough composure to tell him something, what would it be? I would hug him and tell him that he did lasting things, that people are raised on his music decades after he was gone and he did real good. And I’d probably ask for a kiss lol.

•What’s a hobby or pastime of yours you wish you could share with Elvis/Austin!Elvis? I would read with him.

•What’s the Elvis 2022 quote you’ve been mumbling to yourself ever since you heard it? I get lyrics from Suspicious Minds stuck on a loop, and “shove it up your nose”.

•What are your top 3 go-to Elvis songs? Polk Salad Annie, Little Sister and Return To Sender.

•If you could spare him one tragedy what would it be? Being squeezed and squeezed by the colonel until there was nothing left.

•Is there a modern artist that sorta scratches for you the itch that Elvis’ absence leaves? None really, but James Arthur is pretty dang smooth.

•How did you react at the end of the movie when In the Ghetto started to play A. I got up and fixed a snack because I have no soul, B. I left feeling alarmingly horny, C. I was impressed but didn’t realize how affected I was until days later when it was still with me D. I cried buckets they had to bring in a mop E. I may have appeared emotionless but in fact my soul was leaving my body and I don’t think it’s returned quite yet. Shocking to myself, B. And maybe a little bit C.

•If you’ve got a favorite gif or photo insert it here and bless us all

This is one of my all time favourite gifs ever, hands down. He’s so gorgeous. Pretty boy.

Thanks for tagging me, Jo! @karamelcoveredolicity​

Ok, now go and tag a couple mutuals

@foreverdolly​ @succsessions​

[nymerias-heart]

"You should bring this son of yours to court," Cersei told Lady Merryweather. "Six is not too young. Tommen needs other boys about him. Why not your son?" Joffrey had never had a close friend of his own age, that she recalled. The poor boy was always alone. I had Jaime when I was a child . . . and Melara, until she fell into the well. Joff had been fond of the Hound, to be sure, but that was not friendship. He was looking for the father he never found in Robert. A little foster brother might be just what Tommen needs to wean him away from Margaery and her hens. In time they might grow as close as Robert and his boyhood friend Ned Stark. A fool, but a loyal fool. Tommen will have need of loyal friends to watch his back.And then we have this what little finger tells ned.

And

"I was eight when my father sent me to foster at the Eyrie," Ned said. "Ser Rodrik tells me there is bad feeling between Robb and Prince Joffrey. That is not healthy. Bran can bridge that distance. He is a sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love. Let him grow up with the young princes, let him become their friend as Robert became mine. Our House will be the safer for it."

Don't mind me, just sitting here thinking about an AU where Ned is a little less honourable and instead of wanting to tell everyone the secret of cersei's bastards, he lives and rules as Joffreys regant.

"Now look at the other side of the coin. Joffrey is but twelve, and Robert gave you the regency, my lord. You are the Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm. The power is yours, Lord Stark. All you need do is reach out and take it. Make your peace with the Lannisters. Release the Imp. Wed Joffrey to your Sansa. Wed your younger girl to Prince Tommen, and your heir to Myrcella. It will be four years before Joffrey comes of age. By then he will look to you as a second father, and if not, well … four years is a good long while, my lord. Long enough to dispose of Lord Stannis. Then, should Joffrey prove troublesome, we can reveal his little secret and put Lord Renly on the throne

I kind of wish he had taken littlefingers advice, which is a bit ironic I guess that he didn't. In the second quote he is telling catelyn that Bran becoming a good friend and brother to Joffrey and tommen would be safer for house stark but then when it actually comes down to the safety of his house ned chooses his honour, putting his whole family at risk and his capture causing the north to go to war, resulting in the deaths of thousands of lives and the believed almost exctinction of his house.

He tries to fix it when his daughters lives are threatened but it's too late then and he gets beheaded.

I know that with the trident Incident Joffrey has shown he's cruel and what with his tendency's to kill animals from a young age (the cat and tommens baby deer) he doesn't have the best mental health but do ye think he could have become better if ned had become his father figure and he learned to rule from him.

Do ye think there was any chance for him to improve and grow as a character if things had been different?

[aboveallarescuer]

Dany telling herself hopeful stories

As I was rereading ASOIAF, I made it my goal to compile all* the book passages demonstrating either certain key attributes of Daenerys Targaryen (e.g. that she's compassionate and empathetic) or aspects of hers that are usually overblown (e.g. that she's violent and ambitious).  Doing such a task may seem exaggerated, but I'd argue it's not, for many, many misconceptions about Dany have become widespread in light of the show's final season's events (and even before).

It must be acknowledged that it can be tricky to reference, say, ADWD passages to counter-argument how she was depicted in season eight (which allegedly follows ADOS events). Dany will have had plenty of character development in the span of two books. However, whatever happens to Dany in the next two books, I would argue that there is more than enough material to conclude that her show counterpart was made to fall for flaws that she (for the most part) never had and actions that she (for the most part) would never take.

Another objection to the purpose of these lists is that Game of Thrones is different from A Song of Ice and Fire and should be analyzed on its own, which is a fair point. However, the show is also an adaptation of these books, which begs the questions: why did they change Dany's character? Why did they overfocus on negative traits of hers or depicted them as negative when they weren't supposed to be or gave her negative traits that were never hers to begin with? Another fact that undermines the show=/=books argument is that most people think that the show's ending will be the books', albeit only in broad strokes and in different circumstances. As a result, people's perception of Dany is inevitably influenced by the show, which is a shame.

I hope these lists can be useful for whoever wants to find book passages to defend Dany's character in analysis or even conversations.

 *Well, at least all the passages that I could find.

Also, people may interpret certain passages differently and then come up with a different collection of passages, so I'm not arguing that this list is completely objective (nor that there could ever be one).

Also, some passages have been cut short according to whether they were, IMO, relevant to the specific topic of the list they're in, so the context surrounding them may not always be clear (always read the books!). Many of them appear in different lists, sometimes fully cited, sometimes not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm not including quotes that misrepresent Dany here because I couldn't find them on a quick glance and, frankly, I didn't want to find them. But we know that some people like to paint Dany in an overly negative light for taking pride at her ancestors (never mind the numerous double standards) or for not being completely aware of their history. And we know that she should be defended from these accusations. I interpret Dany as someone who, sometimes, needs to tell herself hopeful stories to keep going, especially for having had no family but an abusive brother. Her bias in regarding her relatives and Westeros in an idealized light and her enemies in an overly negative one is part of that pattern (which is contextualized by the universe she lives in, in which familial bonds are the most important ones). And so, I'm listing passages in which we see that pattern come up.

A Dance with Dragons

ADWD Daenerys X

She might have wished for colder, clearer water ... but no, if she were going to pin her hopes on wishes, she would wish for rescue.

She still clung to the hope that someone would come after her. Ser Barristan might come seeking her; he was the first of her Queensguard, sworn to defend her life with his own. And her bloodriders were no strangers to the Dothraki sea, and their lives were bound to her own. Her husband, the noble Hizdahr zo Loraq, might dispatch searchers. And Daario ... Dany pictured him riding toward her through the tall grass, smiling, his golden tooth gleaming with the last light of the setting sun.

Only Daario had been given to the Yunkai’i, a hostage to ensure no harm came to the Yunkish captains. Daario and Hero, Jhogo and Groleo, and three of Hizdahr’s kin. By now, surely, all of her hostages would have been released.

~

It makes no matter. By now the Yunkai’i will be marching home. That was why she had done all that she had done. For peace.

~

But none of those things had happened. Bells, Dany thought again. Her bloodriders had found her. “Aggo,” she whispered. “Jhogo. Rakharo.” Might Daario have come with them?

 ADWD Daenerys IX

The boar was a huge beast, with tusks as long as a man’s forearm and small eyes that swam with rage. She wondered whether the boar that had killed Robert Baratheon had looked as fierce. A terrible creature and a terrible death. For a heartbeat she felt almost sorry for the Usurper.

 ADWD Daenerys VII

“And my father? Was there some woman he loved better than his queen?”

Ser Barristan shifted in the saddle. “Not … not loved. Mayhaps wanted is a better word, but … it was only kitchen gossip, the whispers of washerwomen and stableboys …”

“I want to know. I never knew my father. I want to know everything about him. The good and … the rest.”

“As you command.”

~

How beautiful, the queen tried to tell herself, but inside her was some foolish little girl who could not help but look about for Daario. If he loved you, he would come and carry you off at swordpoint, as Rhaegar carried off his northern girl, the girl in her insisted, but the queen knew that was folly.

 ADWD Daenerys V

The day might come soon when she would have need of every knight. “Will they joust for me? I should like that.” Viserys had told her stories of the tourneys he had witnessed in the Seven Kingdoms, but Dany had never seen a joust herself.

“They are not ready, Your Grace. When they are, they will be pleased to demonstrate their prowess.”

 ADWD Daenerys IV

“One day I will want to return to Westeros, to claim the Seven Kingdoms that were my father’s.”

“One day all men must die, but it serves no good to dwell on death. I prefer to take each day as it comes.”

Dany folded her hands together. “Words are wind, even words like love and peace. I put more trust in deeds. In my Seven Kingdoms, knights go on quests to prove themselves worthy of the maiden that they love. They seek for magic swords, for chests of gold, for crowns stolen from a dragon’s hoard.”

~

“Ninety days and ninety nights without a corpse, and on the ninety-first we wed?”

“Perhaps,” said Dany, with a coy look. “Though young girls have been known to be fickle. I may still want a magic sword.”

~

“I saw your father and your mother wed as well. Forgive me, but there was no fondness there, and the realm paid dearly for that, my queen.”

“Why did they wed if they did not love each other?”

“Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince was promised would be born of their line.”

[...] “What became of her?”

“Summerhall.” The word was fraught with doom.

Dany sighed. “Leave me now. I am very weary.”

~

“Most queens have no purpose but to warm some king’s bed and pop out sons for him. If that’s the sort of queen you mean to be, best marry Hizdahr.”

Her anger flashed. “Have you forgotten who I am?”

“No. Have you?”

Viserys would have his head off for that insolence. “I am the blood of the dragon. Do not presume to teach me lessons.” When Dany stood, the lion pelt slipped from her shoulders and tumbled to the ground. “Leave me.”

 ADWD Daenerys II

Dany shut her eyes and tried to think of home, of Dragonstone and King's Landing and all the other places that Viserys had told her of, in a kinder land than this ...

~

“Tell me a tale, ser,” Dany said as they climbed. “Some tale of valor with a happy ending.” She felt in need of happy endings. “Tell me how you escaped from the Usurper.”

“Your Grace. There is no valor in running for your life.”

Dany seated herself on a cushion, crossed her legs, and gazed up at him. “Please. It was the Young Usurper who dismissed you from the Kingsguard …”

~

“[...] I was gathering my things when it came to me that I had brought this on myself by taking Robert’s pardon. He was a good knight but a bad king, for he had no right to the throne he sat. That was when I knew that to redeem myself I must find the true king, and serve him loyally with all the strength that still remained me.”

“My brother Viserys.”

~

“Stark was a traitor who met a traitor’s end.”

“Your Grace,” said Selmy, “Eddard Stark played a part in your father’s fall, but he bore you no ill will. When the eunuch Varys told us that you were with child, Robert wanted you killed, but Lord Stark spoke against it. Rather than countenance the murder of children, he told Robert to find himself another Hand.”

“Have you forgotten Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon?”

“Never. That was Lannister work, Your Grace.”

“Lannister or Stark, what difference? Viserys used to call them the Usurper’s dogs. If a child is set upon by a pack of hounds, does it matter which one tears out his throat? All the dogs are just as guilty. The guilt …” The word caught in her throat.

 A Storm of Swords

ASOS Daenerys VI

“Your father is called ‘the Mad King’ in Westeros. Has no one ever told you?”

“Viserys did.” The Mad King. “The Usurper called him that, the Usurper and his dogs.” The Mad King. “It was a lie.”

“Why ask for truth,” Ser Barristan said softly, “if you close your ears to it?” He hesitated, then continued.

[...] The truth is, I wanted to watch you for a time before pledging you my sword. To make certain that you were not ...”

“... my father’s daughter?” If she was not her father’s daughter, who was she?

“... mad,” he finished. “But I see no taint in you.”

“Taint?” Dany bristled.

~

“Was my father truly mad?” she blurted out. Why do I ask that? “Viserys said this talk of madness was a ploy of the Usurper’s ...”

“Viserys was a child, and the queen sheltered him as much as she could. Your father always had a little madness in him, I now believe. Yet he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with such promise ... but as the years passed, the lapses grew more frequent, until ...”

Dany stopped him. “Do I want to hear this now?”

Ser Barristan considered a moment. “Perhaps not. Not now.”

“Not now,” she agreed. “One day. One day you must tell me all. The good and the bad. There is some good to be said of my father, surely?”

“There is, Your Grace. Of him, and those who came before him. Your grandfather Jaehaerys and his brother, their father Aegon, your mother ... and Rhaegar. Him most of all.”

“I wish I could have known him.” Her voice was wistful.

“I wish he could have known you,” the old knight said. “When you are ready, I will tell you all.”

 ASOS Daenerys V

“...Your war is in Westeros.”

“I have not forgotten Westeros.” Dany dreamt of it some nights, this fabled land that she had never seen. “If I let Meereen’s old brick walls defeat me so easily, though, how will I ever take the great stone castles of Westeros?”

~

“Why are you here?” Dany demanded of him. “If Robert sent you to kill me, why did you save my life?” He served the Usurper. He betrayed Rhaegar’s memory, and abandoned Viserys to live and die in exile. Yet if he wanted me dead, he need only have stood aside ...

~

“...And since the day you wed Khal Drogo, there has been an informer by your side selling your secrets, trading whispers to the Spider for gold and promises.”

He cannot mean ... “You are mistaken.” Dany looked at Jorah Mormont. “Tell him he’s mistaken. There’s no informer. Ser Jorah, tell him. We crossed the Dothraki sea together, and the red waste ...” Her heart fluttered like a bird in a trap. “Tell him, Jorah. Tell him how he got it wrong.”

“The Others take you, Selmy.” Ser Jorah flung his longsword to the carpet. “Khaleesi, it was only at the start, before I came to know you ... before I came to love ...”

“Do not say that word!” She backed away from him. “How could you? What did the Usurper promise you? Gold, was it gold?” The Undying had said she would be betrayed twice more, once for gold and once for love. “Tell me what you were promised?”

“Varys said ... I might go home.” He bowed his head.

I was going to take you home!

 ASOS Daenerys IV

“Tell me more of my brother Rhaegar, if you would. I liked the tale you told me on the ship, of how he decided that he must be a warrior.”

~

“...He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.”

“He won some tourneys, surely,” said Dany, disappointed.

~

Dany did not want to hear about Rhaegar being unhorsed. “But what tourneys did my brother win?”

~

“But that was the tourney when he crowned Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty!” said Dany. “Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?”

~

“But I am not certain it was in Rhaegar to be happy.”

“You make him sound so sour,” Dany protested.

 ASOS Daenerys II

“Yet I must have some army,” Dany said. “The boy Joffrey will not give me the Iron Throne for asking politely.”

“When the day comes that you raise your banners, half of Westeros will be with you,” Whitebeard promised. “Your brother Rhaegar is still remembered, with great love.”

“And my father?” Dany said.

The old man hesitated before saying, “King Aerys is also remembered. He gave the realm many years of peace.[”]

~

“Viserys would have bought as many Unsullied as he had the coin for. But you once said I was like Rhaegar ...”

“I remember, Daenerys.”

“Your Grace,” she corrected. “Prince Rhaegar led free men into battle, not slaves. Whitebeard said he dubbed his squires himself, and made many other knights as well.”

“There was no higher honor than to receive your knighthood from the Prince of Dragonstone.”

“Tell me, then—when he touched a man on the shoulder with his sword, what did he say? ‘Go forth and kill the weak’? Or ‘Go forth and defend them’? At the Trident, those brave men Viserys spoke of who died beneath our dragon banners—did they give their lives because they believed in Rhaegar’s cause, or because they had been bought and paid for?” Dany turned to Mormont, crossed her arms, and waited for an answer.

“My queen,” the big man said slowly, “all you say is true. But Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle, he lost the war, he lost the kingdom, and he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and Robert the Usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.”

 ASOS Daenerys I

“Did you ever meet my royal father?” King Aerys II had died before his daughter was born.

“I had that great honor, Your Grace.” “Did you find him good and gentle?”

Whitebeard did his best to hide his feelings, but they were there, plain on his face. “His Grace was ... often pleasant.”

“Often?” Dany smiled. “But not always?”


“He could be very harsh to those he thought his enemies.”


“A wise man never makes an enemy of a king,” said Dany.

~

“Along with a thousand others at some harvest feast. Next you’ll claim you squired for him.”

“I make no such claim, ser. Myles Mooton was Prince Rhaegar’s squire, and Richard Lonmouth after him. When they won their spurs, he knighted them himself, and they remained his close companions. Young Lord Connington was dear to the prince as well, but his oldest friend was Arthur Dayne.”

“The Sword of the Morning!” said Dany, delighted. “Viserys used to talk about his wondrous white blade. He said Ser Arthur was the only knight in the realm who was our brother’s peer.”

Whitebeard bowed his head. “It is not my place to question the words of Prince Viserys.”

“King,” Dany corrected. “He was a king, though he never reigned. Viserys, the Third of His Name. But what do you mean?” His answer had not been one that she’d expected. “Ser Jorah named Rhaegar the last dragon once. He had to have been a peerless warrior to be called that, surely?”

~

Dany turned back to the squire. “I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded. There is a tale told of him ... but doubtless Ser Jorah knows it as well.”

“I would hear it from you.”

“As you wish,” said Whitebeard. “[...] Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, ‘I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.’”

“And he was!” said Dany, delighted.

~

I am still half a world from Westeros, Dany reminded herself, but every hour brings me closer. She tried to imagine what it would feel like, when she first caught sight of the land she was born to rule. It will be as fair a shore as I have ever seen, I know it. How could it be otherwise?

 A Clash of Kings

ACOK Daenerys III

“The Arbor makes the best wine in the world,” Dany declared. Lord Redwyne had fought for her father against the Usurper, she remembered, one of the few to remain true to the last. Will he fight for me as well? There was no way to be certain after so many years.

~

“If you go west, you risk your life.”

“House Targaryen has friends in the Free Cities,” she reminded him. “Truer friends than Xaro or the Pureborn.”

~

“Illyrio believes in no cause but Illyrio. Gluttons are greedy men as a rule, and magisters are devious. Illyrio Mopatis is both. What do you truly know of him?”

“I know that he gave me my dragon eggs.”

He snorted. “If he’d known they were like to hatch, he would have sat on them himself.”

That made her smile despite herself. “Oh, I have no doubt of that, ser. I know Illyrio better than you think. I was a child when I left his manse in Pentos to wed my sun-and-stars, but I was neither deaf nor blind. And I am no child now.”

~

“Sellswords have their uses,” Ser Jorah admitted, “but you will not win your father’s throne with sweepings from the Free Cities. Nothing knits a broken realm together so quick as an invading army on its soil.”

“I am their rightful queen,” Dany protested.

“You are a stranger who means to land on their shores with an army of outlanders who cannot even speak the Common Tongue. The lords of Westeros do not know you, and have every reason to fear and mistrust you. You must win them over before you sail. A few at least.”

 ACOK Daenerys II

It felt good to close her eyes and float, knowing she could rest as long as she liked. She wondered whether Aegon’s Red Keep had a pool like this, and fragrant gardens full of lavender and mint. It must, surely. Viserys always said the Seven Kingdoms were more beautiful than any other place in the world.

[...] Viserys had believed that the realm would rise for its rightful king ... but Viserys had been a fool, and fools believe in foolish things.

~

The Usurper will kill you, sure as sunrise, Mormont had said. Robert had slain her gallant brother Rhaegar, and one of his creatures had crossed the Dothraki sea to poison her and her unborn son. They said Robert Baratheon was strong as a bull and fearless in battle, a man who loved nothing better than war. And with him stood the great lords her brother had named the Usurper’s dogs, cold-eyed Eddard Stark with his frozen heart, and the golden Lannisters, father and son, so rich, so powerful, so treacherous.

~

“A gift of news. Dragonmother, Stormborn, I tell you true, Robert Baratheon is dead.”

Outside her walls, dusk was settling over Qarth, but a sun had risen in Dany’s heart. “Dead?” she repeated. In her lap, black Drogon hissed, and pale smoke rose before her face like a veil. “You are certain? The Usurper is dead?”

“So it is said in Oldtown, and Dorne, and Lys, and all the other ports where we have called.”

He sent me poisoned wine, yet I live and he is gone. “What was the manner of his death?” On her shoulder, pale Viserion flapped wings the color of cream, stirring the air.

“Torn by a monstrous boar whilst hunting in his kingswood, or so I heard in Oldtown. Others say his queen betrayed him, or his brother, or Lord Stark who was his Hand. Yet all the tales agree in this: King Robert is dead and in his grave.”

Dany had never looked upon the Usurper’s face, yet seldom a day had passed when she had not thought of him. His great shadow had lain across her since the hour of her birth, when she came forth amidst blood and storm into a world where she no longer had a place. And now this ebony stranger had lifted that shadow.

“The boy sits the Iron Throne now,” Ser Jorah said.

“King Joffrey reigns,” Quhuru Mo agreed, “but the Lannisters rule. Robert’s brothers have fled King’s Landing. The talk is, they mean to claim the crown. And the Hand has fallen, Lord Stark who was King Robert’s friend. He has been seized for treason.”

“Ned Stark a traitor?” Ser Jorah snorted. “Not bloody likely. The Long Summer will come again before that one would besmirch his precious honor.”

“What honor could he have?” Dany said. “He was a traitor to his true king, as were these Lannisters.” It pleased her to hear that the Usurper’s dogs were fighting amongst themselves, though she was unsurprised.

 A Game of Thrones

AGOT Daenerys IX

She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen.

 AGOT Daenerys VIII

She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.

 AGOT Daenerys VII

Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver’s Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.

 AGOT Daenerys IV

And sometimes she found herself wishing her father had been protected by such men. In the songs, the white knights of the Kingsguard were ever noble, valiant, and true, and yet King Aerys had been murdered by one of them, the handsome boy they now called the Kingslayer, and a second, Ser Barristan the Bold, had gone over to the Usurper. She wondered if all men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.

[redteabaron]

The three gods and their lots - (three heads of the dragon)

Contains meta below the cut as well as possible interpretations and theories and speculation. I feel like I should also add a disclaimer that no, I don’t think Targaryens are gods incarnate, this is just examining mythological aspects in their stories and characters and finding commonalities. (I only respect one mortal turning into a god and that is Bran) 

The major three gods of the Greek pantheon were: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. They drew lots and shared dominion over the world - Zeus was god of the sky and king of the gods, Poseidon was god of the sea, and Hades was the god of the Underworld. Three dominions, three gods. 

“The dragon has three heads.” - Daenerys IV, ACOK 

Aegon/Zeus

“I have. Why should I go running to my aunt as if I were a beggar? My claim is better than her own. Let her come to me...in Westeros.” - Aegon, The Lost Lord, ADWD

The lesson began with languages. Young Griff spoke the Common Tongue as if he had been born to it, and was fluent in High Valyrian, the low dialects of Pentos, Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys, and the trade talk of sailors. … Geometry followed languages. There the boy was less adroit, but Haldon was a patient teacher…” - Tyrion IV, ADWD

“...Yandry said we ought to throw you back, but the lad forbade it.” 

The prince. - Tyrion VI, ADWD

Upon his birth, Zeus had to be spirited away from his father, Cronus, who had swallowed his siblings and hidden so he could escape the fate of his siblings. He would later grow, revolt against his father, and regurgitate his siblings. After drawing lots, Zeus would be given dominion over the sky and be named king of the gods. 

Zeus was affiliated with protection, authority, righteous rule, battle, and justice. He was considered a fair protector and ruler, but not above petty jealousy or anger (or amorousness). 

Aegon, in what little we have seen from him, is actually groomed from a young age to rule. He doesn’t have the hands-on experiences several other characters are thusly put through in the books, but it is very clear he knows what is expected of him, has the knowledge required for the position, and has a good claim to the throne - one that is seemingly preordained, as Zeus’s was foretold before his father swallowed his children. 

Aegon’s connection to the red comet seen on the day of his birth can be loosely traced to Zeus’s mastery over the sky itself (where the sky reflects a point of significance to both Zeus’s temper or demands, so did Aegon’s birth seemingly coincide with the prophecy of the prince that was promised). 

“Young Griff”/Aegon had similarly been spirited away as Zeus had during a time of catastrophe when his claim would threaten another (where instead of a stone wrapped in swaddling, Aegon’s escape was tendered by Varys switching him with another baby) and raised in secrecy, despite being the rightful heir of a kingdom. It’s not Cronus he was hidden from or his actual father, but Robert Baratheon who is hellbent on wiping out the entire line of Targaryens, even agreeing to Tywin’s methods (whether or not he ordered the Mountain to do what he did to Elia and the children doesn’t matter; he was the Mountain’s lord, and so at best he just insinuated ‘do what you want’ very well knowing what Gregor was like). Not so different from Cronus, who, desperate to keep his power, swallowed all of his children.  

In text he’s shown to be a little impatient in his desire to be taken seriously and not be coddled by Griff (but honestly he’s 16 and every teenager everywhere in the history of anybody can be impatient and a little overdramatic; Tyrion is briefly reminded of Joffrey when Aegon throws a tantrum over cyvasse, but Tyrion is shown to not like a lot of people for various reasons, so). However, he has a fantastic grip on his studies, in particular language and history, and we can infer that he has an interest in ruling that goes well beyond ‘it sounds like fun’ (Robert Baratheon’s quote that he never felt so alive as when he was winning the war, and never so dead after it was won comes to mind), at least from what we know from Varys and Griff, and a bit from Tyrion. 

But aside from the impatience we see from him, he shows compassion and an unwillingness to forget kindness when he refuses to let Tyrion drown after Tyrion saves him from a stone-man. From the Tyrion chapters in ADWD, we see Aegon laugh quite freely, is at ease among people of a different station from him; we actually get the idea that even if he can be a little immature, he shows a lot of promise for rule and justice.  

One of the more interesting connections between he and Zeus is the fact that there is some debate as to whether Zeus is the youngest or the oldest of his siblings since he was never swallowed by his father (who technically, after he regurgitated them, also gave ‘birth’ to the swallowed siblings) - and there is understandable debate as to whether Aegon is really Aegon. It could go either way; they are Schrödinger's brother and represent a puzzle, a possible paradox (I do actually believe Aegon is the real deal; if Ned can smuggle out a secret-baby from a tower across a battlefield with only his buddy from the swamps, Varys could certainly have arranged a switch).  

And associating Aegon with justice, imo, isn’t a stretch - particularly when we’ll get to see him gain some traction outside of Jon Connington’s influence (who just likes to hate on the Martells because he’s a Rhaegar fanboy don’t @ me) and we see him meet Arianne. Jon C only sees Rhaegar in Aegon because all Jon C can ever see is Rhaegar; once we move beyond Jon C’s immediate and constant influence over Aegon (and him trying to shape him as Rhaegar 2.0) we’ll see Aegon have the opportunity to connect directly with his Martell side. I believe there’s a good chance we’ll see Aegon seek out, and speak about it, justice for his mother and sibling especially given that he’ll have a positive Martell influence at his side. We just haven’t had the opportunity yet. (And Zeus was always associated with righteous authority and justice). 

It’s not a huge hint, but there is also the connection Zeus has with gryphons; in a translation of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Prometheus has a warning for Io “Beware of the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark, gryphons”. Gryphons/griffins are also said to pull Zeus’s chariots. Jon C is undoubtedly the guard dog that stands ready at Aegon’s side and manages to ‘carry’ him in a sense to Griffin’s Roost (poor influence on him notwithstanding, I can’t really cast aside the fact that he is loyal to Aegon, regardless of the reasons why). 

Admittedly, Aegon is definitely much milder than Zeus with his flaws microscopic compared to the king of gods, but I think a lot of mythology references aren’t word-for-word, and in asoiaf they sometimes pull through less obviously. Casting Aegon as Zeus works specifically for this because of the rule of three, and who I ended up going with for the other two in this meta/theory. 

Zeus was not without his share of flaws and while he was king of the gods, his rule never went unchallenged - chief amongst them to instigate things was Poseidon. Aegon similarly won’t be unchallenged for it. 

Daenerys/Poseidon

“The Dothraki sea,” Ser Jorah Mormont said as he reined to a halt beside her on the top of the ridge. Beneath them, the plain stretched out immense and empty, a vast flat expanse that reached to the distant horizon and beyond. It was a sea, Dany thought. - Daenerys III, AGOT

“...I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water.” - Ned, Eddard VIII AGOT

The horse seemed to know her moods, as if they shared a single mind...The Dothraki were a hard and unsentimental people, and it was not their custom to name their animals, so Dany thought of her only as the silver. She had never loved anything so much. - Daenerys III AGOT 

“...I know that somewhere upon the grass, her dragons hatched, and so did she. I know she is proud. How not? What else was left her but pride? I know she is strong. How not? The Dothraki despise weakness. If Daenerys had been weak, she would have perished with Viserys. I know she is fierce. Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen are proof enough of that. She has survived assassins and conspiracies and fell sorceries, grieved for a brother and a husband and a son, trod the cities of the slavers to dust beneath her dainty sandaled feet.” - Tyrion VI, ADWD

Poseidon was lord of horses, god of the sea (and all that it entailed). Upon drawing his lot, he envied Zeus his position as rightful king and challenged him for it several times (conspiring with his siblings at some points), and would often needle his sibling. He was a key deity to pray to for protection, mostly travelers and sailors. He was associated with the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses. In some stories, he too was smuggled away from Cronus, in others, he was swallowed like his siblings. 

Poseidon’s temperament was known to reflect the sea and storms; he was unruly and seen as a rebel against authority that existed both in the divine realm and the mortal realm. Him being lord of the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses, reflects a wilder nature. 

While Aegon is seen as the rightful heir to the iron throne (and consequently has the Golden Company with him, lending a further air of credibility to his right since the GC are ‘honorable’) and has a shared mastery of the sky with Zeus (referring to the day of his birth and its connection to the red comet), Dany has been ‘given’ domain over the sea. The Dothraki sea, at any rate, and the Dothraki themselves (who are also known as horselords). While her temperament hasn’t shown itself to quite the extreme Poseidon’s has shown in his tales, she has a connection to the foreshadowing of a storm, of bringing a storm (her name, the day of her birth, repeated connection with the unruliness of her largest dragon Drogon, and indications of her possibly forming an alliance with Euron Greyjoy in the future etc). 

No squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called, for she had come howling into the world on distant Dragonstone as the greatest storm in the memory of Westeros howled outside, a storm so fierce that it rippled gargoyles from the castle walls and smashed her father’s fleet to kindling. - Daenerys I, ASOS 

It’s an interesting connection that Dany has with the sea and horses, imo. She’s shown to love the freedom of the sea, of sailing, and she loves horses. Both are associated with freedom to travel and journey, as we see her ecstasy on the back of Drogon flight gives her a similar feeling. It is, I think, reflecting the fact that she isn’t shown to enjoy ruling, but she does enjoy power and victory (and conquering although it’s not so cartoonishly overt). The fact that Ned says there’s nothing to fear so long as the Dothraki never learn how to cross the Narrow Sea on their horses was setting up that they will ‘learn’. 

Dany, cast under Poseidon, as lord of horses and the sea (and journeying), gives them that “opportunity” (one they don’t want or need, desperately). 

While all the gods of the pantheon were guilty of petty meddling and warring with each other and having rivalries, Poseidon was infamous for having disputes with other gods for supremacy and control of other countries. At once point, when Athens chose to follow Athena over him, he flooded them in his outage. Some believed that his anger roused storms, caused earthquakes, and floods. (Again, he was far from the only god to do petty things like this, but he was held up as the one who was infamous for it even as he was also viewed as a protector). 

Dany doesn’t summon any of those things, but there is a buildup of her anger/frustration in the books. Her justice is biased (to say nothing of her hypocrisy in dealing with slavery, in one breath claiming it is abominable, in the next allowing it to happen and partaking a portion of the profit just as the slavers she had ousted did) when she corrects herself to demand that the wineseller’s daughters be questioned more harshly, rather than gently (implying there is torture to follow in the interrogation). 

We see that temper rear its head when she burns Mirri, a victim of the Dothraki who was taken as a slave after being assaulted a number of times, after Drogo dies, when Jorah’s duplicity is revealed to her and she sends he and Barristan into the sewers hoping they’ll die, etc, (not necessarily to say her anger in some of these moments isn’t warranted, but gradually over the course of the books, her frustration becomes more obvious and her solutions bloodier and less focused). 

Poseidon, despite having his own dominion and having drawn the lot for the sea, challenges Zeus for his. He loses, but it isn’t the only time he challenges Zeus, or any other gods, at times enacting terrible vengeance on them or their favored humans. 

Dany and Aegon meeting is pretty inevitable, but there is foreshadowing that they will be at odds. Maybe they’ll meet with the united idea that the Lannisters/Baratheons have to face justice for what was done, but Dany’s idea of a legacy is wrapped up only in the legacy of the Targaryens, and she refuses to consider any other elements that occurred during the Rebellion (her father going mad, why the Starks and Baratheons rebelled, what Rhaegar was at fault for, etc). Aegon at least is implied to listen to Tyrion - he isn’t only blinded by what Jon C undoubtedly has told him - meaning he’ll likely hear Arianne out too, and Jon Snow. Dany has one truth, passed down from Viserys, one legacy. 

Like Poseidon, Dany already isn’t satisfied with her lot, warring over other countries (or conquest, claiming Meereen for her own after Astapor falls to the butcher). She will challenge Aegon for a lot that belongs to him, but I believe that unlike Poseidon, she’ll actually win against him. 

Jon/Hades

Casting Jon as Hades is something I’ve already written about in this meta, so this is just a summary with bits added on. 

When I compared Jon to Hades, I also compared the Night’s Watch being the place when men went and died, metaphorically, they died in the eyes of the realm (no wife, no sons, no land, no glory, etc). I believe that Jon is being groomed for rule in a different way, that is, holding domain over the condemned or forgotten. 

When Aegon and Dany inevitably clash over the throne, the aftermath is going to look like a hellscape. King’s Landing is repeated through the text to be the seat of power, the center of Westeros, multiple times, and with another Dance building up, I think, leads to foreshadowing that it’ll be ruined or on the brink of ruin at the end. It’ll still need someone to rule it, whether through the infant stages of an elective monarchy (it sounds like they’ll need something more than that or it’ll just invite more chaos as though rule can only be achieved through conquest of some kind, particularly for a monarchy) or otherwise. 

Jon has already fallen into an unenviable position. Sure, he gets to be Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch - an order that vows to remain at the Wall, against a horde of undead, with no support besides Stannis, with ‘dead’ men as his subjects. 

Some myths meld Zeus and Hades into the same being existing on different plains. Hades is also known as “Other Zeus” or “Infernal Zeus”; here, where Zeus is the god of living mortals, Hades is the god of the dead souls. 

Aegon is meant to take the Iron Throne and be the ruler over the Seven Kingdoms, in King’s Landing, a place of power, wealth, bounty from other kingdoms, etc. Dany will be his end in the Dance of Dragons and turn that bounty, or its possibility, into a wasteland. I don’t doubt people will still be alive, but it’ll be a place of ruins, and so will quite a few other places. I think Jon will likely kill Dany after the fact, for kinslaying and being a threat to the north and the realm, and thereby becoming a kinslayer himself. 

The gods of Westeros punish kinslaying. Jon, at this point of finding his family and being murdered for being Lord Commander and spending time under threat with the free folk (even if they do get along now) will probably just want to go home. Punishment for kinslaying will be for him to hold another position no one wants; the throne. Where when Aegon is set to take it, the kingdoms are in chaos, he’ll seem like a bright spot with hope, we might see him pay attention to food issues, the chaos, logistics, etc. And then he dies. And then Dany dies. And all that’s left are the survivors - those seemingly forgotten and condemned to this place afflicted by war and famine -, and Jon. His punishment for kinslaying (and maybe making mistakes with Dany) will not be able to go home, or be made to take up a post at the Watch; he’s condemned, once again, to the people who’ll seem more dead than alive after everything that’s occurred. 

Jon’s duty was, and will continue to be, to the condemned.

[pluralquotebook]

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there's so many anons wow :0

[alayne-stonecoldfox]

Sansa and Songs

Sansa’s love of songs is shown early on in the books, and is a an important part of her character as well as her narrative.

Once, when she was just a little girl, a wandering singer had stayed with them at Winterfell for half a year. An old man he was, with white hair and windburnt cheeks, but he sang of knights and quests and ladies fair, and Sansa had cried bitter tears when he left them, and begged her father not to let him go. "The man has played us every song he knows thrice over," Lord Eddard told her gently. "I cannot keep him here against his will. You need not weep, though. I promise you, other singers will come."They hadn't, though, not for a year or more. Sansa had prayed to the Seven in their sept and old gods of the heart tree, asking them to bring the old man back, or better still to send another singer, young and handsome. But the gods never answered, and the halls of Winterfell stayed silent.

Many different characters comment on it

Lady Catelyn had said that Sansa was a gentle soul who loved lemon cakes, silken gowns, and songs of chivalry - Brienne

So the singer played for her, so soft and sad that Arya only heard snatches of the words, though the tune was half-familiar. Sansa would know it, I bet. Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly.- Arya

Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces.- Tyrion

Her love of songs is at first tied to the way she wishes to see the world, her innocence, her dreams and her naivety. She has lived a happy and sheltered life, she is the beautiful daughter of a noble house, and has no reason to think her life would not be like the heroines of the songs she loves. This is her romanticised view of the world.

All she wanted was for things to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs.

Be brave, she told herself. Be brave, like a lady in a song.

"It is better than the songs," she whispered when they found the places that her father had promised her, among the high lords and ladies. Sansa was dressed beautifully that day, in a green gown that brought out the auburn of her hair, and she knew they were looking at her and smiling.

Sansa insisted. "I don't want someone brave and gentle, I want him. We'll be ever so happy, just like in the songs, you'll see. I'll give him a son with golden hair, and one day he'll be the king of all the realm, the greatest king that ever was, as brave as the wolf and as proud as the lion."

This quote below is one of the first times Sansa instead associates songs with a negative connotation, but in an interesting way.

The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her, some stranger from the Vale of Arryn whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized; there would be no songs sung for him. That was sad.

She has just witnessed a young Vale knight die in the joust. It is described as :

“the most terrifying moment of the day came during Ser Gregor's second joust, when his lance rode up and struck a young knight from the Vale under the gorget with such force that it drove through his throat, killing him instantly. The youth fell not ten feet from where Sansa was seated.”

Sansa’s reaction is recorded alongside her friend Jeyne’s

Jeyne Poole wept so hysterically that Septa Mordane finally took her off to regain her composure, but Sansa sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching with a strange fascination. She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come.

I love this part of the book. It’s Sansa’s first, very blunt, encounter with death, though it takes place in such a wonderful colourful atmosphere, a court joust, where she’s been having the time of her life and has always dreamed of being part of. It is even quoted by her as being ‘a song come to life’. The way it’s written seems like she can’t quite process what she’s just seen. The reality of the death. The only thing that registers with her truly in that moment is that he won’t be the one the songs are sung for, and that’s what she finds most tragic. It is a shallow take on it. She is still a young girl caught up in songs and not reality.

This passage happens in Sansa’s third chapter, when Ned has decided Ser Gregor is to be brought before the Kings Justice, and Loras volunteers to bring him in but Ned refuses to send him. Sansa doesn’t understand why, and says this to her Septa, and Petyr Baelish overhears

Her father's decision still bewildered her. When the Knight of Flowers had spoken up, she'd been sure she was about to see one of Old Nan's stories come to life. Ser Gregor was the monster and Ser Loras the true hero who would slay him. He even looked a true hero, so slim and beautiful, with golden roses around his slender waist and his rich brown hair tumbling down into his eyes. 

Lord Baelish stroked his little pointed beard and said, "Nothing? Tell me, child, why would you have sent Ser Loras?"Sansa had no choice but to explain about heroes and monsters. The king's councillor smiled. "Well, those are not the reasons I'd have given, but …" He had touched her cheek, his thumb lightly tracing the line of a cheekbone. "Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow."

Again, a moment highlighted Sansa’s naivety and how she truly believes life would be like the songs, Ser Loras defeating Gregor because he is the handsome young knight and Gregor the monster. It is also the first introduction of the line “life is not a song sweetling” which will be echoed throughout Sansa’s chapters from this point on, as her innocent world view is shattered and her naivety chipped away. The line is impactful coming from Petyr Baelish of all people, as he was once also a young boy who’s world vision was crafted from songs. 

"There's a song," he remembered. "'Jenny of Oldstones, with the flowers in her hair.'""We're all just songs in the end. If we are lucky." She had played at being Jenny that day, had even wound flowers in her hair. And Petyr had pretended to be her Prince of Dragonflies. Catelyn could not have been more than twelve, Petyr just a boy.

Did you come with Lord Bracken and Lord Blackwood, the time they visited to lay their feud before my father? Lord Bracken’s singer played for us, and Catelyn danced six dances with Petyr that night, six, I counted.

He believed Catelyn Stark was being married against her will in an arranged marriage to Brandon Stark, falsely believing Cat loved him and he had taken her maiden head (he hadn’t, he was drunk and it was Lysa) and they were going to be together despite his lower birth, and he could fight for her hand, because that was how it happened in the songs where the gallant young hero’s always won. But that’s not what happened, and Petyr lost everything in that duel, his home at Riverrun, his ties with House Tully and what he thought was his true love, and from that point onwards he descended into bitterness, becoming a man of ruthless practicality. He recognises the same innocence in Sansa with a knowingness that it will not last.

Another key figure in Sansa’s narrative relating to songs is The Hound. From the beginning of her chapters he derisively refers to Sansa as a little bird who sings songs.

Some septa trained you well. You're like one of those birds from the Summer Isles, aren't you? A pretty little talking bird, repeating all the pretty little words they taught you to recite."

Tell me, little bird, what kind of god makes a monster like the Imp, or a halfwit like Lady Tanda's daughter? If there are gods, they made sheep so wolves could eat mutton, and they made the weak for the strong to play with."

A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face." He cupped her under the jaw, raising her chin, his fingers pinching her painfully. "And that's more than little birds can do, isn't it? I never got my song.""I . . . I know a song about Florian and Jonquil.”"Florian and Jonquil? A fool and his cunt. Spare me. But one day I'll have a song from you, whether you will it or no."

The Hound seems to resent Sansa’s innocence. He is a character that certainly knows how harsh the world is, and he see’s Sansa’s world views as foolish, and every chance he gets he seems to want to wake her up to the real world, whilst also acting as a protector. She brings out a lot of conflicting feelings within him, as he does in Sansa, as he does not fit her idea at all of what a knight was meant to be. His harsh demeanour is very confronting to her throughout her early chapters, culminating in a scene in her room where he seemingly planned on raping her, but could bring himself to do it, because as much as he hated her innocence, it touches him as well. He settles on wanting a song.

"Think I'm so drunk that I'd believe that?" He let go his grip on her arm, swaying slightly as he stood, stripes of light and darkness falling across his terrible burnt face. "You look almost a woman . . . face, teats, and you're taller too, almost . . . ah, you're still a stupid little bird, aren't you? Singing all the songs they taught you . . . sing me a song, why don't you? Go on. Sing to me. Some song about knights and fair maids. You like knights, don't you?"He was scaring her. "T-true knights, my lord."

I could keep you safe," he rasped. "They're all afraid of me. No one would hurt you again, or I'd kill them." He yanked her closer, and for a moment she thought he meant to kiss her. He was too strong to fight. She closed her eyes, wanting it to be over, but nothing happened. "Still can't bear to look, can you?" she heard him say. He gave her arm a hard wrench, pulling her around and shoving her down onto the bed. "I'll have that song. Florian and Jonquil, you said." His dagger was out, poised at her throat. "Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life."Her throat was dry and tight with fear, and every song she had ever known had fled from her mind. Please don't kill me, she wanted to scream, please don't. She could feel him twisting the point, pushing it into her throat, and she almost closed her eyes again, but then she remembered. It was not the song of Florian and Jonquil, but it was a song. Her voice sounded small and thin and tremulous in her ears.

This scene, as well as the entirety of the chapters that come after Ned’s death and covering the battle of the blackwater, references songs in a new dark way in Sansa’s chapters.

Perhaps I will die too, she told herself, and the thought did not seem so terrible to her. If she flung herself from the window, she could put an end to her suffering, and in the years to come the singers would write songs of her grief.

She called for the heroes from the songs, for Florian and Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard. Women swarmed over her like weasels, pinching her legs and kicking her in the belly, and someone hit her in the face and she felt her teeth shatter. Then she saw the bright glimmer of steel. The knife plunged into her belly and tore and tore and tore, until there was nothing left of her down there but shiny wet ribbons.

She heard it as she had never heard it before, and there were other sounds as well, grunts of pain, angry curses, shouts for help, and the moans of wounded and dying men. In the songs, the knights never screamed nor begged for mercy.

The deep moan of warhorns, the creak and thud of catapults flinging stones, the splashes and splinterings, the crackle of burning pitch and thrum of scorpions loosing their yard-long iron-headed shafts . . . and beneath it all, the cries of dying men.It was another sort of song, a terrible song.

They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They've never seen a battle, they've never seen a man die, they know nothing. Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father's head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them.

Do you have any notion what happens when a city is sacked, Sansa? No, you wouldn't, would you? All you know of life you learned from singers, and there's such a dearth of good sacking songs.""True knights would never harm women and children." The words rang hollow in her ears even as she said them.

For those who remained, a singer was brought forth to fill the hall with the sweet music of the high harp. He sang of Jonquil and Florian, of Prince Aemon the Dragonknight and his love for his brother's queen, of Nymeria's ten thousand ships. They were beautiful songs, but terribly sad. Several of the women began to weep, and Sansa felt her own eyes growing moist."Very good, dear." The queen leaned close. "You want to practice those tears. You'll need them for King Stannis."

But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. "Life is not a song, sweetling," he'd told her. "You may learn that one day to your sorrow." 

Sansa’s world view has begun to change as she is no longer naive and has suffered tragedy, and nothing is happening as she thought it would. She still seems to love songs, but now there’s a lot of melancholy attached to them.

The third key figure in Sansa’s narrative associated with songs, after Petyr Baelish and the hound, is Marillion. Her Aunt Lysa’s favourite singer who she encounters first at the Fingers during Petyr and Lysa’s marriage, where he attempts to sing to her and rape her.

"Marillion?" she said, uncertain. "You are . . . kind to think of me, but . . . pray forgive me. I am very tired.""And very beautiful. All night I have been making songs for you in my head. A lay for your eyes, a ballad for your lips, a duet to your breasts. I will not sing them, though. They were poor things, unworthy of such beauty." He sat on her bed and put his hand on her leg. "Let me sing to you with my body instead." She caught a whiff of his breath. "You're drunk.""I never get drunk. Mead only makes me merry. I am on fire." His hand slipped up to her thigh. "And you as well."

Luckily, he is scared off by Lothor Brune, who is asked by Petyr Baelish to watch over her that night. But Marillion and his singing factor again into one of the biggest moments of Sansa and Baelish’s story so far, as he plays his harp and sings to cover the sounds of Lysa’s attempt at killing Sansa by throwing her through the moon door.

“No." Sansa planted her feet and tried to squirm backward, but her aunt did not budge. "Not this way. Please . . ." She put a hand up, her fingers scrabbling at the doorframe, but she could not get a grip, and her feet were sliding on the wet marble floor. Lady Lysa pressed her forward inexorably. Her aunt outweighed her by three stone. "The lady lay a-kissing, upon a mound of hay," Marillion was singing. Sansa twisted sideways, hysterical with fear, and one foot slipped out over the void. She screamed. "Hey-nonny, hey-nonny, hey-nonny-hey." The wind flapped her skirts up and bit at her bare legs with cold teeth. She could feel snowflakes melting on her cheeks. Sansa flailed, found Lysa's thick auburn braid, and clutched it tight. "My hair!" her aunt shrieked. "Let go of my hair!" She was shaking, sobbing. They teetered on the edge. Far off, she heard the guards pounding on the door with their spears, demanding to be let in. Marillion broke off his song."Lysa! What's the meaning of this?" The shout cut through the sobs and heavy breathing. Footsteps echoed down the High Hall. "Get back from there! Lysa, what are you doing?" The guards were still beating at the door; Littlefinger had come in the back way, through the lords' entrance behind the dais.

Petyr comes in time to stop it. Of course, we know this is when he kills Lysa himself. Marillion is witness to all of this. Petyr decides to keep him alive for his own ends, sending him to the dungeons to be tortured into now defending their innocence.

"We have come to an agreement, Marillion and I. Mord can be most persuasive. And if our singer disappoints us and sings a song we do not care to hear, why, you and I need only say he lies. Whom do you imagine Lord Nestor will believe?""Us?" Sansa wished she could be certain.

"Lord Petyr has been kind enough to let me keep my harp," the blind singer said. "My harp and . . . my tongue . . . so I may sing my songs. Lady Lysa dearly loved my singing . . ."

Sansa most traumatic moment, the moment she almost died, was serenaded with a song. Now she and Petyr use that singer to cover the crime of Lysa’s death with Sansa being able to hear him from down in the dungeons where he sings at night.

The singer's voice was strong and sweet. Sansa thought he sounded better than he ever had before, his voice richer somehow, full of pain and fear and longing. She did not understand why the gods would have given such a voice to such a wicked man.

He would have taken me by force on the Fingers if Petyr had not set Ser Lothor to watch over me, she had to remind herself. And he played to drown out my cries when Aunt Lysa tried to kill me.That did not make the songs any easier to hear.

 "Please," she begged Lord Petyr, "can't you make him stop?""I gave the man my word, sweetling." Petyr Baelish, Lord of Harrenhal, Lord Paramount of the Trident, and Lord Protector of the Eyrie and the Vale of Arryn, looked up from the letter he was writing. He had written a hundred letters since Lady Lysa's fall. Sansa had seen the ravens coming and going from the rookery. "I'd sooner suffer his singing than listen to his sobbing."

That night the dead man sang "The Day They Hanged Black Robin," "The Mother's Tears," and "The Rains of Castamere." Then he stopped for a while, but just as Sansa began to drift off he started to play again. He sang "Six Sorrows," "Fallen Leaves," and "Alysanne." Such sad songs, she thought. When she closed her eyes she could see him in his sky cell, huddled in a corner away from the cold black sky, crouched beneath a fur with his woodharp cradled against his chest. I must not pity him, she told herself. He was vain and cruel, and soon he will be dead. She could not save him. And why should she want to? Marillion tried to rape her, and Petyr had saved her life not once but twice. Some lies you have to tell. Lies had been all that kept her alive in King's Landing.

Marillion in his entirety really opens up a more troubling world view for Sansa to start to digest. He was beautiful and young and a singer, but he tried to rape her. He tried to aid in her murder. He was tortured into defending her and Baelish. She knows he will be killed. Sansa is conflicted by all of this, feeling haunted by his sad songs as she tried to sleep but can’t. He has given her a lot to think about regarding her survival but also her morality.

"My lady was too trusting for this world." Petyr spoke so tenderly that Sansa would have believed he'd loved his wife. "Lysa could not see the evil in men, only the good. Marillion sang sweet songs, and she mistook that for his nature."

Songs have been weaved throughout Sansa’s narrative consistently, alongside three men who enforce these links even more. The Hound who wanted a song, Lord Baelish who was once a lover of songs himself, and Marillion, the singer. I believe that songs will continue to play a thematic role in Sansa’s chapters, but i would say the dreams and innocence once associated with them in her mind is long gone.

The moment came back to her vividly. "You told me that life was not a song. That I would learn that one day, to my sorrow." She felt tears in her eyes, but whether she wept for Ser Dontos Hollard, for Joff, for Tyrion, or for herself, Sansa could not say. 

As the boy's lips touched her own she found herself thinking of another kiss. She could still remember how it felt, when his cruel mouth pressed down on her own. He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak.It made no matter. That day was done, and so was Sansa.

That day was done, and so was Sansa.

That day was done, and so was Sansa.

That day was done, and so was Sansa.

[the-void-walking-hunter]

●General●

Full name:  Elizabeth 

Nicknames: The Void Walker

Age: 25

Gender/Gender Identity: Female 

Sexual orientation: Bi-curious 

Ethnicity: American 

Languages: English and a bit of everything else but not great at it.

Place of birth: New Iberia, Louisiana

[“This woman is not a lady, this woman has more guts, the most hardened vet with southern charm a mean vocabulary and a soft spot for whisky. Sadly she is from a less  updated world where certain words are commonplace and has monsters just like here.” Unknown ]

●Personality●

General description: To all with sensitive ears and beliefs you might wanna stay away from this cowgirl. She was a lean mean monster hunting machine back home and here it makes no difference now with the benefits of possibly being the oldest person in the realm who has been here the longest. She of course is from a much different time not long after the civil war that took a different spin for the worst where demons hell hounds and the dead roam and need killing. Here she puts her past work to good use only without her rifle by her side but still keeping a cross with her in her nun outfit.

Strengths: She knows how to make a killer day worse even being able to kill them if people heard right with ways to fix a gen or fix a wound.

Weaknesses: She has a bad temper with meaner vocab making most around her uncomfortable  

Fears: Of going back into the void

Goals 'and dreams: Of killing The Entity.

Positive traits: She can be a fun gal and share wisdom.

Negative traits: Can say racist things at times although she not.

Occupation: Monster Hunter/Bounty Hunter

Hobbies/Interests: Reading her bible, drinking like a drunk.

Achievements: Has killed killers and came out of the void alive

[“The girl may say things you hear a racist man would say like it is commonplace but her wisdom and fighting skill are unmatched." Bill]

●Not Going Gently Into That Good Night●

Usage: [You died before here and saw the other side and won’t go back without a fight. This perk has two different styles one for in a trap like the bear traps and one for the hook. If you are trapped on a hook you can only use it once but if you are in a bear trap you have a cool down. If the killer is close you are able to break free but kicking them in the face or gut punching them stunning them for a bit]

Level Unlock: 30

Cool down: [120 seconds ]

Related Quote: "I won't die like to bitch if those killers want me they will have to fight me!"

●Old Cowgirl Wisdom●

Usage: [People think just because it's old or from an older person it's worthless but you know better. You can use any item to any task but it takes more out of it]

Level Unlock: 40

Cool down: [None]

Related Quote: "These old eyes saw many things and before I was put in the void I learned more then any kid nowadays."  

●Cheater●

Usage: [Being in the void opened the mind to more things and taught you how to make the entity your pawn. After you are unhooked you make the hook unable to use for 120 seconds. If someone else has the same perk it can’t be used]

Level Unlock: 50

Cool down: [N/A]

Related Quote: "The Lord gave me strength and I used the entity to be my slave." 

[“Pretty good for a rich plantation girl right?"  

●Physical/Appearance●

Eyes: Used to be blue but now red.

Hair: Long white hair

Skin colour: Pale 

Skin detail: a bit soft 

Body type: Skinny

Default Clothing: [A nun outfit fitted to be used in gun fights with a holster on her hip a cross necklace around her neck and a bible on her other side of her hip]

Voice: [Tough]

Other: [Has old bullet hole scars and other scars on her chest and back.]

[“I wonder how would Robert E. Lee do here? If i had to guess not to well without help.”] 

●Bio●

Backstory: [Elizabeth was born from a rich plantation girl and a poor hunting boy. The father died while watching over her when she was no more than five or six years old by a demonic bear protecting her till his last breath. Her mom took her in as a family secret but after she kept warning them about the monsters hiding in the woods they decided to send her into nunnery but even then she still saw the beast following her. The pastor was thankfully a good man who believed her, once being an old bounty hunter who saw too much blood teaching her the way of a gun slinger. When she turned 21 the civil war was raging on when one dare stories of monsters came attacking both the south and north armys. It wasn't long before the monster attacked the people with her meeting the same battle ridden bear that killed her old man. The pastor hid Colt Paterson in his bible but died before getting it but Elizabeth thankfully dropped the gun in holy water before putting the damn bear done and on that day she and the country changed. The war was over with both sides deciding that they had a bigger problem lincoln tell the country about the new bounty hunting system with robert e lee having his old men make his gang as Elizabeth made her own gang wearing the same clothes only outfitted to kill having a old china man make her a special Colt Paterson to kill any monster or man dead quickly. By 25 she was a legend and one of the top hunters in the world but she met her match when she was taken by the entity even then she kept her fighting spirit before sadly being thrown into the void when she was useless and out of fight. It was horrible in the void till one day she heard music and saw the outline of a pretty young woman from the void and so she used all the strength she can to pull herself out of the void becoming a new woman and again a survivor who will fight back with the added bonus of seeing things a bit differently. ]

[“That girl….shit am i some fag or something? ”]

[bonesgadh]

My take on Arya Stark’s ending in Game of Thrones (a.k.a why I firmly believe she is going to return to Westeros eventually)

Disclaimer: I still don’t agree with the way D&D chose to end Arya’s arc—and probably I never will. However, I wrote this very long-ass meta because I’ve been trying to find a meaning behind her ending, and in case you are still in denial as I am I hope this helps you get some closure.

Let’s begin (as I just said a very long-ass meta coming right up, I promise it’s the last one):

The last two weeks have been rough. Now that my mom™ has given up on GOT I’ve been forced to keep my theories and headcanons to myself (although I’ve shared my rants with you it’s not the same because it’s not a proper conversation with actual feedback). I’ve spent a good portion of my days thinking about how shitty the GOT finale was and how stupid it was for Arya to leave her family and her home behind just to sail into the unknown. I know there’s people out there who are pleased with her decision, saying that Arya was always a free spirit and is not meant to be bound to one place for long, and that she is destined for greatness and a life of adventures. There’re also others out there (like me) who are not happy at all because even though Arya is a free spirit, she is not a lonely wolf. She is fierce and independent but she also has strong bonds with her family and her home and there’s no way she would give that up to follow a life of uncertainty away from those she loves. Anyway, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

That said and in case you haven’t noticed, I’ll proceed to make the following statement: I’m a complete Arya Stark stan. Arya is one of my three favorite fictional characters ever and I have loved her ever since I first saw her on screen ruining her embroidery. I love how she talks, the things she says, how she thinks, how she loves and feels. I love the way Maisie Williams portrays her and speaks on her behalf in interviews and bts videos; she gets Arya in a way no one does and that’s what a good actor is supposed to do, to become its character’s custodian (like Carrie Fisher was Princess Leia’s).

I have spent years studying Arya. Profiling her, analyzing her, trying to get inside her head to understand her motivations. “What is Arya thinking in that scene? What motivates her to do what she is doing? What are the real reasons behind her actions?” I’ve used all my training as a psychologist to get to know her better, to love her more. When I study a character I like to pretend we are in therapy; I’m their therapist and they are my patients.

Now, why didn’t I support Arya’s decision to go find out what’s west of Westeros? Because for the first time since I started watching GOT I couldn’t understand why she wanted to do it. I couldn’t. Obviously because her leaving brings a sad end to the Stark rhetoric of “the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”, but also because I just didn’t get why someone who had finally embraced life would embark in such a suicide mission. I was left speechless (and yeah I know she mentioned wanting to make that trip before but she did it once and at a time of her life when she thought she was alone in the world).

As a Gendrya shipper I didn’t like her rejecting Gendry’s proposal but I understood her reasons. I knew she had something else to do, besides she had never been drawn to the life of a lady because that’s not her (even though I strongly believe changing your mind about something you said when you were a child is completely valid and it doesn’t mean you’ll become a different person but whatever). Besides it made sense after what Maisie said about Arya being torn between life and death. It hurt but I knew why she did it. That didn’t happen to me during the last episode.

Arya leaving to see what’s west of Westeros didn’t make sense to me because it seemed as if she was embracing her “no one” persona again. What makes you ‘”someone”? Your home, your family, your friends. What makes Arya Arya? Winterfell, her siblings and those she holds dear (besides her family, Gendry is the only meaningful relationship she has now that the Hound is dead). Arya choosing the life of a reckless adventurer meant giving up her home, her family and her friends. I couldn’t stop scratching my head at the thought of Arya going back to being no one because it pretty much destroyed her entire arc from at least seasons 6, 7 and 8 (her returning home after years away, reuniting with her loved ones, finally embracing life and recovering her humanity).

Arya’s decision has haunted me for two entire weeks. I couldn’t stop asking myself: “Why?” Well, after sleeping for approximately 70 hours over the last fourteen nights I think I finally have the answer:

Her choice goes beyond wanting to see what’s west of Westeros, beyond a longing for an adventure that she gets to choose for once, beyond living wild and free.

Arya is looking for the meaning of her life.

For years, Arya‘s list worked as a lifesaver. She held on to it as tightly as she could and it’s what helped her survive all the shit she went through. In “Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor Frankl says:

Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any 'how’.

When you lose whatever gives meaning to your life (your partner, your children, your parents, your job) you suffer the most serious existential crisis of them all.

Arya’s entire existence revolved around getting revenge, about avenging her family and making those who had hurt them pay. However, with her list gone, Arya has now lost the “why” Frankl talks about. Chances are she can’t stop asking herself what happens next, followed closely by:

”Who am I without my list, a list that gave meaning to my life?”

For those at Winterfell she is a hero, the slayer of the Night King, the savior of the world. For Gendry she is the woman he loves, the one he wants to marry. For Jaqen and the Faceless Men she is a girl, a girl that is no one. For those who have known her for most of her life she is a lady.

But Arya rejects all of the above. She said it herself to the Hound: she doesn’t like heroes. She doesn’t see herself as one even though she is. She rejects Gendry’s proposal because she is not interested in being a Lord’s wife (although she has feelings for him she doesn’t want to live in a man’s shadow). She rejects the identity set on her by Jaqen because she knows she’ll never be able to let go off her thirst for vengeance. She rejects being a lady because that’s not her.

It seems to me Arya is very aware of the things she is not, but she doesn’t know what she is.

In that case, who is Arya Stark? What is her?

“Who are you?” is probably the hardest question you can ask a person to answer. My guess is Arya doesn’t even know it herself. That’s why her whole plot with the Faceless Men makes sense and it’s not really about her learning cool skills, it’s more about her trying to learn who she is. Even though she knew she was Arya Stark of Winterfell what does that even mean? Strictly speaking it’s nothing else besides her name and the place where she was born. However, things with the Faceless Men would never work because if there’s one thing Arya knows is that she is not no one. She defended her right to her identity until her last day in Braavos.

I mentioned earlier three of the things that make you you are your home, your family and your friends. Let’s break them down:

Home

A crucial part of Arya’s overall arc was her constantly trying to return to Winterfell, her very long road back home. However she abandoned her quest and went to Braavos instead, and for a while she seemed to have forgotten her earlier wish. A year and a half later she told Jaqen she was going home after she decided to leave the Faceless Men, but she wasn’t planning on going back North. She only decided to head there after she heard her family had recovered Winterfell. She told Nymeria she was going home because at that moment she thought the North was her home. 

But then why did she leave without saying goodbye after the Great War? Perhaps she didn’t want to worry her family by telling them what she planned to do, or maybe (and for the record I don’t agree with what I’m about to say) the months she spent there made her realize Winterfell was not her home anymore—or it didn’t quite feel like home yet—. When she and the Hound were inside the Red Keep and he told her to go home, my guess is Arya had no idea where to go. The place she believed to be home was not anymore, so where was she supposed to go? That’s why she didn’t really abandon King’s Landing after she rode away on the white horse—she only used it to leave the immediate destruction but chose to return to check on Jon, because she had nowhere else to go.

Family

Now, let’s compare Arya’s position in the finale with that of her siblings:

Jon left to live with the wildings, the people he loves and who love him in return. He is meant to be with them and maybe even lead them, Bran kind of hinted at this during their goodbye after Jon apologized for not being there for him when he needed him. I don’t remember the exact quote but if my memory doesn’t fail me he said something like “You were exactly where you were supposed to be”, and that’s what gave Jon the idea of permanently leaving with the wildings.

Sansa was crowned Queen in the North. She is officially the leader of the pack and the alfa, and her new mission is to protect and guide her people. Thanks to her the Starks recovered Winterfell, she fought for independence and the northerners love her.

Bran was elected King of the Six Kingdoms and he will help rebuilt the realm after the war’s atrocities and prevent everyone from reprising their mistakes.

Strictly speaking her siblings don’t need her right now, the three of them are relatively safe and they have all found the meaning of their lives and their place in the world. Arya, on the other hand, hasn’t. Her list gave her a meaning for years, but now that it’s gone for good she is trying to find a new one. You would think killing the Night King would give her some sense of purpose, but I honestly believe finding out you were born to save humanity would give you an even bigger existential crisis than anything else.

”Hey, but didn’t the ending already establish finding out what’s west of Westeros is the new meaning of her life?” You might ask.

The answer is no, it didn’t. The way I see it, Arya wanting to know what’s west of Westeros is like an item from her bucket list. A few weeks ago I found a very good post that said it would be great if Arya replaced her killing list with a “living” list full of things she wants to do. “Seeing what’s west of Westeros” definitely sounds like a bucket list item to me.

Also just take a look at each of the Stark’s endings by the time the credits roll:

Jon, Sansa and Bran’s endings are very “final”, sort to speak, while Arya’s was the most ambiguous of them all. When you get exiled you get exiled for life; if you are King or Queen you are until you die. However, a journey is, by definition, a temporary thing. Arya can’t—and won’t— spend the rest of her life travelling to nowhere. A person that has been as hurt as Arya has needs stability, something safe to hold on to, and living an errant life is the exact opposite of this.

Besides she is Sansa’s heir. Even if Sansa is young too we can’t know for sure if she’ll ever get married and have kids and therefore it’s way too risky to make their entire lineage depend on her. That’s why a King or Queen’s siblings try to have two-three children themselves, just in case they come in hand.

Goodbyes

GOT is a show that puts a lot of emphasis in goodbyes. When they wanted to close a storyline, most of the times they gave those involved a closure scene (this doesn’t include Gendrya because their final scene didn’t give them closure at all, but that’s another story). The ones I can remember now:

Daenerys never got to meet Rhaego and still she was able to say goodbye to him and Drogo during her vision.

Davos giving the wooden stag to Shireen.

Sansa telling Ramsay to his face how much she hated him and how his house would go extinct after his death right before giving him to his own dogs to eat.

I would dare to say the scene where Talisa and Robb talk about their baby right before they are murdered during the Red Wedding serves as a goodbye between them.

Theon and Yara’s final scene from 8x01. 

Jaime and Brienne’s conversation before he left for King’s Landing.

Obviously the Hound and Arya’s moment at the Red Keep when he encourages her to save herself.

Tyrion thanking Jaime for being kind to him before helping him escape

I was pissed we didn’t see Arya saying goodbye to Sansa. They wasted a good two minutes on Tyrion rearranging furniture but they didn’t give us the Stark sisters wishing each other good fortune? I call bullshit. Nevertheless I now believe it was probably a good thing we didn’t (if you are a Gendrya shipper this applies to them as well).

The reason why we saw Sansa, Arya and Bran saying goodbye to Jon was because it was meant to be the last time the three Starks would see their half brother/cousin. However we didn’t see Sansa, Arya and Bran saying goodbye to each other because they will definitely reunite in the future. Theirs is not a permanent goodbye while the one with Jon was, and that’s why they showed it during the episode (besides Arya’s exact words were: “I’m not going back North” but she didn’t say she would never return. The way I see it she meant: “At this moment I don’t intend to go North.”)

Some parting thoughts

I don’t know if what I wrote makes any sense and no matter how much I try to understand it, I’ll never agree with D&D’s decision of sending Arya away and giving her that ending. However, because I think I know her I want to believe she chose to embark on her little suicide mission because she needs to clear her mind and gain some perspective about what she wants to do with her life. I’ve seen some people refer to it as her taking a gap year before college, others say she just went on sabbatical, I personally like to call it a Rumspringa-like trip around the world.

As I mentioned in a previous meta, sometimes we forget Arya is still a very young woman because she is such a badass. She is only 18 years old and she has her whole life ahead of her. She will use her journey to see what’s west of Westeros—which apparently is Asshai in the books’ canon—to discover who she is, instead of what she is not. A recurring theme in Arya’s arc has been her being forced to repress her own identity (pretending to be Arry instead of Arya; pretending to be a boy instead of a girl; pretending to be a mason’s daughter instead of a Lord’s; pretending to be no one just to be accepted into the House of Black and White; pretending to not being scared about potentially dying). But now, she’ll get to construct her identity at her own pace, without being constantly afraid of everything being taken away from her. 

She will arrive at Asshai and discover the known world is round, but she’ll decide to travel across Essos instead of simply turning back. She’ll visit Qarth, catch a glimpse of the Red Waste, go to Dragon’s Bay and stay at the cities Dany was in. She’ll sneak a peak of the Dothraki Sea and Vaes Dothrak, and then she’ll sail for the Valyrian Peninsula. She’ll go to the Red Temple of Volantis and the red priests and priestesses are going to be delighted to meet the person who ended the Long Night. She’ll travel north to Myr, Pentos and Braavos and finally, after a year or two of backpacking through Essos she’ll reaffirm Winterfell/Westeros is her home, and she’ll be ready to return to her family and loved ones as a healed new woman *If you are not a Gendrya shipper you can stop reading right now* First she’ll go to Winterfell to catch up with Sansa, then she’ll go to King’s Landing to say hi to Bran and finally she’ll make her way to Storm’s End.

And Gendrya will get the soft epilogue they were denied in the final episode.

[shions-heart]

Magic in the Being Human AU

@akaashisstar​ asked me to write a more in-depth explanation of the Infinite Bond in my Being Human ‘verse, and I’ve been meaning to make a post about it, but I thought I’d go ahead and explain how magic works as a whole, as well.

Bits and pieces have been revealed throughout the series, but I know some of you have only read Origins, or have only read The Awakening, etc. so I’ll explain everything here. :)

There’s a difference between “demon” magic, and witch magic. I put “demon” in quotations because the demons of this ‘verse aren’t the demons of Judeo-Christian origin. There exists in this AU a multitude of dimensions existing parallel to the “official” dimension that is “our” world, where our volleyball children live. Most of them have harsh environments with creatures that are violent and would sooner kill and eat you than sit down for tea. Humans, even those with magic, would be hard pressed to survive in them, thus they are designated as “Hell” dimensions, as in trying to live in them would be “hell.”

“Demons” are such creatures that live in these dimensions and have evolved through the magical influence of their dimensions to have sentience and intelligence beyond a regular beast. The higher the “Class” of demon, the more intelligent and powerful they are, though the numbers are in ascending order (kinda confusing). In Hinokoku, Malikra is a Class 1 demon, so he is one of the most powerful and intelligent beings in these Hell dimensions. Imps are around a Class 8 or 9, not very powerful, very low intelligence, etc. Then there are various creatures that serve the higher class demons, such as Hell Hounds (Class 3 or 4), which can shape-shift into humanoid form to suit their masters’ needs, and pleasure demons (Class 4 or 5), which are created through the magic of Class 1 or 2 demons. (Malikra created Kenma from his magic, which is explained in Tides Turning, so while Kenma can’t wield magic, he is a magical being that can shape-shift and be sustained off magical and sexual energy, etc. since that’s how he was specifically created)

(point of reference: I borrow heavily from DnD and Mob Psycho 100 for my inspiration in all of this)

this is getting long, so i’ll continue under the cut

All humans in the volleyball children dimension have an aura which is energy that manifests from their soul. Basically, life energy. The first witches discovered through meditation and different rituals that they could “tap into” their auras and use that energy to manipulate their surroundings. The stronger the aura, the more energy could be used. Once the energy has been depleted, the witch must have a full nights’ rest for the energy to store back up. One can also draw their own energy in small amounts to then store it while it’s being replenished so one has “extra” on hand. Think of it like the energy is water from a faucet filling up a bucket, and you can take water as it’s running to fill up a second bucket (or a third, fourth, fifth, etc). There’s no “maximum” amount of water you can store, but there is a minimum you can hit. i.e. if you use too much water and all your buckets are empty, you are depleted until the running water refills your first bucket at least 1/3 of the way.

The more energy (water) that’s stored, or the less energy (water) used for the spell, the longer the magic (water) can be used. And for someone like Bokuto in Tides Turning, a small amount of energy was basically injected directly into his DNA while he was a fetus, so that’s why magic works differently for him, and he can resist the effects of some spells/magic, as the energy is not just in his aura but his physical body as well (and though that bit can never be maximized, it can’t be depleted either, so even if he runs out of water, there’s always a small amount left he can use). 

(I hope that makes sense!!)

Spells were created to help witches concentrate their energy/magic on the task they want to complete. This was taught down generations. (Demons don’t have to use spells, because they are beings evolved from magic, so it’s an intrinsic part of them, and they can will their energy to do whatever they want. Witches can be taught to will their energy without spells, but it’s very difficult because one stray thought or desire can cause the energy to misfire somehow.)

The strength of one’s aura can be hereditary, which is why The House of the White Rose values magical purity and encourages its members to marry only fellow “pureblood” witches. If one has a weak aura, it’s very difficult or even impossible to wield its energy as magic, so to marry a simple human or a witch of mixed blood can cause the aura to weaken. Magic can be “taken away” from a witch by placing a magical “block” around the receptors in the brain that can “tap into” the energy.

ANYWAY, now to Kat’s original question which is “how does the Infinite Bond work??”

so I go a little more in-depth with this in Igniting Fires, when Iwaizumi and Oikawa cast the Infinite Bond spell in Chapter 2. Here’s a quote from that scene:

“The Infinite Bond is a complicated spell, one that takes years to master, and undoing it is just as difficult, possibly even deadly. It binds the auras of two people together, making it so one can’t go more than a few dozen miles away without them both feeling debilitating nausea, and if either of the two are in distress, the other can feel it and pinpoint the location of their partner. It’s said that the Bond knits the two souls together, and while the connection doesn’t work exactly like telepathy, it’s one that grows stronger the longer it holds and the closer the two are to one another, to the point where one can know intimately what the other is feeling at all times.”

It’s described during the scene as two tendrils of golden energy extending out from Iwaizumi’s chest and Oikawa’s chest, meeting in the middle and curling around each other as they continue forward, until Oikawa’s energy enters Iwaizumi’s chest, and Iwaizumi’s energy enters Oikawa’s while wrapped around each other. They continue to burrow into each chest, still coiling around and around, until the spell is completed. Then, the light from the energy fades but doesn’t retreat. So, essentially, there is a string of Oikawa’s aura tangled with Iwaizumi’s, and vice versa, and it’s still there, physically connecting them (that’s why they can’t go too far from each other without adverse side effects, because the strings will stretch too thin). That’s also why it’s described in Igniting Fires as a warm ball in the chest, with the faintest beat like a second heart, since they’re basically feeling the other’s life through the string.

Through this connection, Iwaizumi can tap into Oikawa’s emotions, and vice versa. They longer they’re connected, the easier it is, until they can send and receive emotions and check in with each other’s emotions as effortlessly as breathing. It’s not a completely open channel. One of them has to essentially open the door to feel it and can close the door if they don’t want to feel it, but the door becomes thinner and thinner as the connection continues until even if it is closed, they’d be able to feel at least traces of the other’s emotions. Also, the stronger the emotion, the more it bleeds through the connection, so if one is having a particularly strong emotion the door might not need to be opened at all for the other to feel it, depending on how thin it is.

It’s the same for Semi and Shirabu! Starting out, they’re not as close as Oikawa and Iwaizumi, obviously (as IwaOi was already established and they’d been a couple for years before bonding), so that’s why they didn’t necessarily feel any different once the spell was complete. But as the years go by, the connection will strengthen and the door will grow thinner. I’m pretty sure Semi opens the door to Shirabu much more often than Shirabu does to Semi (he kind of has to since the White Swan Coven Council used the Infinite Bond spell as a way for Semi to keep track of Shirabu’s emotional state and intervene if he feels Shirabu’s in danger of exploding), but the option is available to Shirabu if he wants to know what Semi’s feeling.

Kat also wanted to know what it was like in A Many Splendored Thing for Shirabu while Semi and Tendou were having sex, and I’m guessing that extends to how Semi felt while Shirabu was with Goshiki. ;P

I’ll explore this more in The Awakening sequel, but for Shirabu, he didn’t feel anything when Semi and Tendou were together for their first time, since that takes place only a couple months after they all move in together and Shirabu was on a demon hunting mission while it was taking place. He would’ve been focused on the fight in that instance. I also don’t think, going forward, he would invade Semi’s privacy like that when he knows he’s with Tendou.

Semi, though, I think he would check in with Shirabu while he’s with Goshiki, just to sort of touch base and make sure everything’s okay. Shirabu and Goshiki didn’t have sex until Goshiki’s 20th birthday, a full year and change after they moved in together, so the door would’ve thinned out some, too. I think he would’ve opened it just a crack to make sure Shirabu was good and comfortable with the situation before closing it to give them privacy. 

Pleasure isn’t an emotion, so they wouldn’t feel each other having sex ahaha. If they checked in during the act they’d probably just feel the love the person has for their partner. I don’t know if they’ll ever open that door while having sex with each other; I’m pretty sure that’d overwhelm them ahaha but . . . it’s not out of the realm of possibility for them to try, I suppose~

[insolitus-academy]

♚ //  Face Claim

Full name Face Claim: Jackson Wang Group/Band/Occupation: Got7 Nationality: Chinese, Asian Faceclaim age: 26

♚ // Character ;  Basic information

Quote: There are consequences for breaking the heart of a murdering bastard…

Full name character: Kokushibo Takahashi (Japanese), Zakariah Nolan Parker (English) Nickname: Pablo Pacasso Zak, Hellhound, The Boogeyman Realm of birth (if earth, nationality): Earth, Japanese/Asian-Greek Age: 28 Date of Birth: March 20, 1992 Gender: Male Preferred Pronouns: He, Him Race: Demigod, Son of Hades Sexual Orientation: Demisexual What languages does your character speak?: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, English, Spanish, Greek

♚ // Character ; Appearance

Skin Color: Pale/Fair Eye color: Brown Scars: None Piercings: Ears  Tattoos: Large upper back tattoo of Cerberus Hair color: Black Abnormalities: n/a Horns/ wings/ etc.: n/a Transformed form: n/a

♚ // Character ; Personality

Six personality traits:

▪︎ observant ▪︎ reserved ▪︎ mysterious ▪︎ stubborn ▪︎ possessive ▪︎ high-handed ▪︎ independent 

Likes: money (and riches), weapons (guns, swords), food, his bed, the cold, night time.

Dislikes: being part human, having a heart/emotions, people trying to crack his codes / try to get close to him, boredom, people who lack respect

Manias: The Darkness. His collection of katanas and samurai swords

Phobias: Philophobia  Animal: Cerberus Religion: Hellenism Favorite song: Unsainted - Slipknot [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpATBBRajP8] Vice: Greed Virtue: Temperance

Personality description:

Zakariah is the strong silent type, always standing tall with his head up high. In conversations, Zak always determines who is worthy enough to be spoken to. He’s a deep listener, an observer. Majority of the time, no one knows what he’s thinking, what his next moves are, or what even goes on with his head.

Zak is known for his charm, always had his ways of making people fall in love with him. If he cares enough, he will easily express his affection. But, if he feels his heart is threatened, he disconnects and distances himself. He holds a strong will and determination when it comes to getting what he wants.

Killing someone he hates doesn’t cause him any remorse. Slapping around a bitch or two to put them in their place is never hesitant and is something he happens to do often when he’s disobeyed. Zakariah has a tendency to pick fights with his lovers, for a sense of arousal, even if the fight is for pointless reasons. 

Zakariah is passionate about his line of work, his family, and the things he loves. Being that he is still young, he can be very selfish, stubborn, and possessive of anything or anyone he labels his. He trained to be a swordsman practically from birth, growing up knowing martial arts and trained to be an assassin. He suffers from PTSD, which has a tendency of having anger outbursts more often than usual. For that, he takes it out on people often. A recent anger outbursts left a room full of 30 headless men, who were involved in the murder of his mother.  

♚ // Character ; Powers

Magical Powers:

Zakariah has the power to temporarily summon the dead as well as creatures from the underworld; such as spirits, minor demon entities, and hell hounds. 

He can also manipulate precious metals, gems and riches (anything from underground), turning them into bricks to spend or to be used as weapons. 

Zakariah can also walk in the shadows and move invisible when there is no direct light, allowing him the power of invisibility and shadow traveling. 

Non-magical Powers:

Sword Fighting, Advanced Weaponry,  Explosive engineering. (will add more later)

Weaknesses: 

Falling in love – Like his father, his first weakness is his heart. His emotions and fondness of people makes him weak, the reason he avoids getting close to anyone. 

His mother – he worshiped the ground she walked on, but after her death, Zakariah became a broken soul and makes him angry when she’s mentioned. 

Daylight – can leave Zakariah with minor burns and cause him harm with his eyesight. Having to live in the daylight, Zakariah wears dark clothing, including anything with long sleeves, pants/slacks, gloves, sunglasses and caps to cover his face. Trying to travel during the day can make him ill and weak, taking most of his energy, reason for him always living in darkness. 

♚ // Character ; The Student

Study Style: Zakariah could be known as a slacker, only because he avoids the books. He uses them to sleep behind them, rather than reading them. Though, he is a fast learner, when learning is more hands-on. Zakariah rather be shown how to do things, instead of trying to learn it from text. He is very smart, but lazy when he becomes bored when he’s feels he is not challenged enough. 

Favorite class: Sword Fighting 

Least favorite class: Biology 

classes (5-8) : 

Sword Fighting  Archery  Stealth & Sneaking Manipulation Economics Drawing & Painting Chemistry Criminology

♚ // Character ; The Past

Date of Birth: March 20th, 1994 Date of Death: still living, n/a

Crime Record: Being connected with the Japanese mafia, Zakariah has a large criminal record but no charges or jail time has ever been served. Zakariah has once faced murder charges, drug trafficking charges, assault charges, etc. Family with high dollars and connections in the criminal justice system has the dark prince still wandering untouched.

Has your character attended Insolitus Academy in the past? No.

Background: 

A prayer to any god in which who would listen, the Yakuza princess begging on her knees in front of an altar, asking to be blessed with a son. Denied the Yakuza kingdom, Sakura Takahashi knew there was no hope for her, for she was a woman and could not reign over her father’s mafia. Sakura would be forced to marry the next heir of the family next in line to rule over Yakuza territories upon her father’s passing. Though the princess feared for her life, knowing the moment she said ‘I do’, she would be beheaded and disposed of, for all they would have wanted was her kingdom. 

Refusing to be wed, Sakura continued to reach out in prayer, hoping she would be heard. Finally, one night, as she slept, her prayers were answered by the one god she least expected to come forth. With the amount of death and corruption in her life, the God of the underworld believed it to be a perfect match, to have a son to rule over not only his underworld but also the human world. Sakura willingly submitted to Hades, giving him her purity. 

After her child’s birth, she taught him all the things he needed to fulfill his duties as Yakuza boss. She trained him to be strong, intelligent, highly skilled and powerful. Though Sakura vowed to never speak of his father, for she feared he would be summoned to join him in darkness. Many had considered Zakariah to be a bastard child, even though his mother had been a virgin. Sakura never allowed any human to speak ill of her son, and when they had she made sure there were always dire consequences. 

At the age of 14, Zakariah’s grandfather was no longer able to fulfill his duties as Yakuza boss. As he laid on his deathbed, the next in line to take over with young Zakariah. Upon accepting his inheritance, his mother Sakura was kidnapped by her former fiance and was eventually murdered. As revenge for being denied marriage to the throne, Sakura’s lifeless body was sent to Zakariah in pieces, as a royal gift to their new king. His first duty as boss was beheading 30 men, in revenge for his mother’s death.

Progressing age, his father haunted his dreams. Coming across his abilities, Zakariah was unable to maintain and control them. He later found out about the academy which could help him contain his powers. He was hesitant to seek the help he needed, but eventually he swallowed his pride and took a step forward, taking part in the academy, in the hopes to learn his place.

♚ // Roleplayer

[ optional ]

Time zone: GMT-7

OOC! Triggers: No triggers. 

Themes/genres you like writing the most?: Mafia/Crime, Supernatural, Romance 

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